Getting out and getting dirty in the summertime can make for some good, clean fun. Between mud festivals, mud races, mud bathing, "tough guy" competitions, and outdoor religious ceremonies, people all around the world have recently been finding great reasons to go outside and feel the earth between their toes. Collected here are a few images from our muddy world.
Down and Dirty
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Tourists play in the mud during the 15th annual mud festival on Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Korea, on July 15, 2012. The festival features mud wrestling, mud sliding and a mud king contest. #
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Jason Glass of Shaw GMC Chevrolet Buick, after running in the Rangeland Derby Chuckwagon finals at the 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede Rodeo in Calgary, Alberta, on July 15, 2012. #
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Visitors watch massive plumes of muddy water being released from the Xiaolangdi dam to clear up the sediment-laden Yellow river and to prevent localized flooding, in Jiyuan, Henan province, China, on July 6, 2012. China is hit by big downpours every summer often causing fatalities as seen in 2010, which saw the nation's worst flooding in a decade leaving more than 4,300 people dead or missing. #
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Rachael Martin and Melissa Adney pose wearing crowns and ball gowns after completing the "Mud Bath" obstacle in the Tough Bloke Challenge at the Cataract Scout Park in Sydney, Australia, on June 30, 2012. #
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A woman plays in the mud during the Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon beach in Boryeong, South Korea, on July 15, 2012. About 2 to 3 million domestic and international tourists visit the beach during the annual mud festival, according to the festival organizers. #
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Children crawl through a mud pit during the Merrell Down & Dirty National Mud and Obstacle Series at the Aurora Sports Park, near Denver, Colorado, on Sunday, June 24, 2012. #
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Mud flies in front of a competitor as he swims through mud underneath electrified wires during the Tough Mudder at Mt. Snow in West Dover, Vermont, on July 15, 2012. The Tough Mudder is a nine mile endurance event which runs competitors through a military style obstacle course complete with mud, water and fire. #
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Kellan Clegg (right), age 9, of Livonia, Michigan, covered in mud by his friends while playing in a giant lake of mud at the 25th annual "Mud Day" in Westland, Michigan, on July 10, 2012. The event, which features a 75' by 150' pit filled with 20,000 gallons of water and 200 tons of topsoil, draws about a thousand children each year. #
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A Filipino Catholic devotee, soaked in mud and wrapped in banana leaves, attends a mass to celebrate the Feast of Saint John The Baptist at Bibiclat village, Aliaga township, Nueva Ecija province in northern Philippines, on Sunday, June 24, 2012. Traditionally the Feast of St. John The Baptist is celebrated in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation in Asia by dousing unwary people with water but in this sleepy village of Bibiclat, the residents soak themselves in muddy rice fields and don banana leaves instead. The unique celebration has become a tourist attraction. #
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Competitors work to pull a woman up an obstacle where competitors must jump to the top of a half pipe during the Tough Mudder in West Dover, Vermont, on July 15, 2012. #
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Nepalese youths jump into the mud as they plant rice in a field in Pokhara, some 200 km west of Kathmandu, on June 29, 2012. The farmers are celebrating National Paddy Day on "Asar 15" of the Nepali calendar as the annual rice planting season begins. #
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A motocross rider competes in the Red Bull Hare Scramble race during Erzberg Rodeo near the village of Eisenerz in the Austrian province of Styria, on June 10, 2012. #
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A team of competitors jump in the air after completing the Merrell Down & Dirty National Mud and Obstacle Series at the Aurora Sports Park near Denver, Colorado, on June 24, 2012. #
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A child has his muddy face washed clean after he competed in the mile run of the Merrell Down & Dirty National Mud and Obstacle Series, near Denver, Colorado, on Sunday, June 24, 2012. #
Nathan Bilow/AP Images for Merrell
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