Book excerpt: Come on a journey around the globe to eat bread of the dead, walk barefoot across red hot coals, and race dragons along the river. Explore festivals that celebrate food, history, culture, and religion in a dizzying variety of ways: meet horse-riding gauchos, act out a pirate invasion, party in a parade, or how about burning a Viking longboat? You can throw tomatoes, enjoy a monkey feast, and see dazzlingly intricate ice sculptures. From 60-feet-high towers of buns to camel racing, there's a festival for everything. Including a stunning central gatefold that opens out to reveal all 80 festivals, this book is a visual celebration of the huge variety of festivals that take place all across the world, from the more familiar to those you might never have heard of before. As the book takes the reader on a journey around the world, it reveals celebrations of food and drink, nature, culture, religion and history, plus ways to mark the passing of the year. Focus spreads will explore subjects such as worldwide festivals, ancient festivals and dressing up.