Category Archives: Culture

World Christmas tree throwing championships kick off

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The annual Knut-fest is in full swing

The annual Knut-fest is in full swing

A town in southern Germany has come up with a novel way to dispose of their old Christmas trees – by throwing them as far as they can.

Whilst throwing out your old tree is nothing new, throwing them is something altogether more original. Now that the festive season has drawn to a close, people living in the small town of Weidenthal are enjoying taking part in the World Christmas Tree Throwing Championship, or ‘Knut-Fest,’ as it is called locally.

Local residents remove all decorations and lights from their old Christmas trees and then enter them into the three Knut-Fest disciplines, which include ‘Weitwurf’ – javelin-style throwing, ‘Hammerwurf’ – hammer-style throwing – and ‘Hochwurf’ – high jump-style throwing.

The three distances are then added together and the overall Knut-Fest winner is the person who has thrown the longest distance in total over the course of the day.

Locals see Knut-Fest as an ideal way to bid farewell to the Christmas period whilst welcoming in the New Year with friends, alongside enjoying a healthy dose of competition.

Taking the title for a third year in a row – and swiftly becoming the King of the Knut-Fest in the process – was 48-year old Frank Schwender, who hails from the nearby town of Frankeneck. Schwender notched up an impressive total throwing distance of 11.45 metres across the three disciplines.

Talk about a throw away society!

Click here to view a video of the event.

 

Toilet theme park opens in South Korea

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Toilet theme park

All the best ideas are developed on the loo. Or so they say.

An establishment in South Korea has decided that more needs to be done to encourage people to value their public conveniences.

Built in memory of the former mayor of the southern city of Suwon, the art gallery and museum has proved a success with tourists in the region.

The mayor, Sim Jae-Duck – affectionately known as Mr Toilet – spent his life campaigning for improvements to the toilets in the sovereign state. His house, which was built in the shape of a toilet, forms the centre piece of the theme park and houses a museum dedicated to the loo.

Different toilets from around the world in various unusual styles are shown inside the museum as is the development of public conveniences over the years.

Lee Youn Souk told the BBC that the park hopes to encourage people to focus on the important things in life. “We just focus on eating everyday, we sometimes overlook the importance of the toilet,” she remarked. “We already know upon waking up in the morning we should go to the toilet but people don’t want to talk about this.”

She added that toilets are an important matter for health, sanitation and water conservation and the museum and theme park hopes to ensure that people don’t overlook this.