Can You Guess the Country From Its Weirdest Food Holiday?
Food holidays can be elegant, odd or completely unhinged in the best possible way. This Country Cuisines quiz takes you from Spain’s tomato-throwing chaos to Lithuania’s pink soup festival, Peru’s ceviche pride, Chile’s loaded hot dogs and the UK’s egg-throwing glory.
Can you match each celebration to the right country? Bring your appetite, your passport and possibly a helmet.
Take the Weird Food Holidays Quiz
#1. In one town, thousands of people gather for a one-hour food fight using truckloads of overripe tomatoes. Which country turns tomato pulp into public policy?
Spain
Spain’s La Tomatina takes place in Buñol, near Valencia. Reuters reported that the 2024 event used about 150 tons of tomatoes and drew roughly 22,000 participants. Civilization peaked, then needed a hose.
#2. Children traditionally wake adults by tapping or swatting them with decorated sticks while demanding cream buns. Which country turned pastry procurement into mild domestic extortion?
Iceland
Iceland’s Bolludagur, or Cream Bun Day, falls before Lent. Icelandair describes it as part of a three-day pre-Lenten celebration, while other sources note the Icelandic tradition of children using decorated sticks and calling for buns. Cute? Yes. Legally suspicious? Also yes.
#3. A harbor festival celebrates the arrival of the season’s new herring, with crowds eating the fish raw once the catch comes in. Which country marks summer with seafood confidence bordering on swagger?
Vlaggetjesdag, or Flag Day, celebrates the arrival of Hollandse Nieuwe herring in Scheveningen. The official festival site says about 200,000 people celebrate the new herring and eat it raw from that day on. Some nations ease into summer. The Dutch bite into it.
#4. One capital city throws a festival for cold pink beet soup, inviting everyone into a very specific shade of culinary joy. Which country celebrates this neon bowl of dairy, dill and beetroot?
Lithuania
Vilnius hosts Pink Soup Fest in honour of šaltibarščiai, Lithuania’s cold beet soup. The official Vilnius tourism site promotes the event as a citywide celebration with pink-themed activities. Barbiecore, but with kefir and boiled potatoes.
#5. Every June 28, this country celebrates a citrus-marinated raw fish dish so central to national pride that it gets its own official day. Which country is it?
Peru
Peru celebrates National Ceviche Day on June 28. Peru’s official tourism site says the day honors and promotes ceviche, one of the country’s defining dishes. Fresh fish, lime, chile, onion and national self-respect.
#6. Every Dec. 23, artisans carve oversized radishes into elaborate scenes for a holiday market tradition that became a formal competition. Which country makes root vegetables compete for glory?
Mexico
Oaxaca’s Noche de Rabanos (Night of the Radishes) takes place every Dec 23. The tradition became a formal radish-carving competition in 1897 and now draws crowds to see short-lived sculptures before the vegetables wilt into artistic retirement.
#7. One country celebrates chewy little cheese breads made from cassava starch, with a national day linked to a TV contest for the best version. Which country loves these cheesy snack puffs enough to calendar them?
Brazil
Brazil’s National Pão de Queijo Day is celebrated Aug 17. CNN Brasil reports the date traces back to a 2007 TV contest on “Mais Você” to find the country’s best pão de queijo. A cheese snack became a civic event. Honestly, fair.
#8. On April 14, single people gather over black bean noodles after Valentine’s Day and White Day have finished tormenting them. Which country turned romantic disappointment into Black Day tradition?
South Korea
Celebrates Black Day every April 14. Korea.net describes it as a light-hearted tradition where single people eat jajangmyeon, noodles topped with black bean sauce. Finally, a holiday where the noodles understand you.
#9. Every May 24, this country celebrates a loaded hot dog usually piled with toppings such as tomato, avocado and heroic amounts of mayonnaise. Which country gives the humble hot dog a national glow-up?
Chile
Chile celebrates Día del Completo on May 24. Chile’s official tourism site says Chileans love completos so much they dedicate the day to their “notorious hot-dog.” Notorious is doing a lot of work here, and I respect it.
#10. Competitors throw eggs, catch eggs and sometimes smash eggs on their foreheads in a village championship with medieval roots. Which country decided breakfast needed a concussion protocol?
United Kingdom
The World Egg Throwing Championships are held in Swaton, Lincolnshire. Reuters reported that the World Egg Throwing Federation traces the game’s origin story to around 1322, when a local abbot supposedly encouraged church attendance by handing out eggs. Eventually, naturally, people started launching them.
Results
7–8 correct: Festival Food Sleuth
Strong work. You can spot a country from a suspicious holiday involving soup, seafood or public dairy enthusiasm.
9–10 correct: International Food Holiday Menace
Excellent. You know your ceviche pride from your pink soup parties. Please celebrate responsibly and keep both hands off the throwable eggs.
0–3 correct: Calendar Confusion Casualty
You showed up festive. The food holidays showed up unhinged.
4–6 correct: Snack Holiday Tourist
You know a few edible celebrations, but tomato fights and egg throwing still caught you without a napkin.
Your Food Holiday Score
Whether you are a Calendar Confusion Casualty or an International Food Holiday Menace, your score proves one thing: food culture has excellent paperwork and questionable supervision.
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