The Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival, inspired by a long-standing tradition from Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire, UK, involves participants racing down a steep hill to catch a rolling wheel of cheese.
Due to the steepness and uneven surface of the hill there are usually a number of injuries. A first aid service is provided by the localSt John Ambulance at the bottom of the hill, with a volunteer rescue group on hand to carry down to them any casualties who do not end up at the bottom through gravity. A number of ambulance vehicles attend the event, since there is invariably at least one, and often several injuries requiring hospital treatment. Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling has been summarised as "twenty young men chasing a cheese off a cliff and tumbling 200 yards to the bottom, where they are scraped up by paramedics and packed off to hospital."
Although the cheese rolling festival officially recognized as early as 2010 was canceled because of the number because nearly 15,000 runners and spectators can hold far more than the hills, and the high-speed rolling hills, great cheese may be injured by the audience. However, all these years, still did not stop the local cheese traders who hold their own「chase」cheese game!
This ceremony originally took place each「Whit Monday」before later transferred to the Spring Bank Holiday. Two possible origins have been proposed for the ceremony. The first is said that it evolved from a requirement for maintaining grazing rights on the common. The second proposal is pagan origins for the custom of rolling objects down the hill. It is thought that bundles of burning brushwood were rolled down the hill to represent the birth of the New Year after winter. Connected with this belief is the traditional scattering of buns, biscuits and sweets at the top of the hill by the Master of Ceremonies. This is said to be a fertility rite to encourage the fruits of harvest.
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In the UK Gloucestershire Cooper's Hill, there is a popular 500 years of strange festival——「Chase Cheese Festival」. End of May each year, dozens of「Cheese Warriors」gathered at Cooper Mountain top,catch rolling down from the top of a three-kilogram double Gloucester cheese, stumbled all the way bolted 200 meters, 45 degree slope down to the bottom. Because of hillside was too steep, Falling fast, many players like as cheese 「roll」 down the mountain, many people fractures or bruises. The first to seize the cheese man can win a piece of cheese, the runner-up will get GBP 5,the second runner is get three coins.
Robbing cheese activity originated in the 19th century, starting from 2009 is listed as unofficial Festival, participate in activities people will enjoy carnival, flew out of the hillside, just to chase a 3.6 kg of cheese.
The Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival, created by Dairy Farmers of Canada, was recently selected as a finalist at the 2013 Dairy Innovation Awards.
