September 7 and 8 aren't usually public holidays in Samoa, but in 2009 there's an exception. At 6am on September 7, the country switches from driving on the right to driving on the left, and Samoans have been given two days off so they can get the hang of it.
It should be a rather interesting couple of days. The Samoan population is overwhelmingly against the switch, and many are predicting all manner of carnage. Most cars are still right-hand drive, buses will be dropping people off in the middle of the road and anyone with a slow watch at 6am could be in for a nasty surprise.
Still, provided the roads aren't clogged up with multi-car pile-ups, the Samoans have a fantastic opportunity to head to the beach.
For more information on Samoa, visit www.samoa.travel.
On July 26, Cubans get the opportunity to stick two fingers up at their teachers, put caps on back-to-front and play offensive music quite loudly in their bedrooms. Okay, that's not quite true — it's more about attending parades and cultural performances. The biggest rally is awarded to the region that achieves the best economic and social performance — as determined by a bunch of old men with beards — in the preceding year.
But why is it called National Rebelliousness Day? Well it commemorates the attack on a military barracks in 1953, in the run up to the Cuban Revolution.
Traditionally in Cameroon, May 21 is the day that the herds of sheep are brought down from the mountains. Good enough reason for everyone — except, presumably, the shepherds — to have a day off.
Held on a seemingly random day in August each year, Gai Jatra is a rather bonkers festival. Every family that has lost a relative during the previous year is supposed to lead a cow — or a young boy dressed as a cow if they can't get hold of real cattle — through the streets. Doing so is believed to help the dead relative toddle off to heaven.
Gai Jatra isn't a solemn occasion, however. The parades are colourful, music-filled affairs and the day is also regarded as one where jokers and satirists should have a free reign to be as wacky as they like.
For most of the world, sports day is inflicted upon fat, ungainly children on a school-by-school basis. It's a decentralised chance for parents to watch their hopeless offspring fall over in a sack or twist an ankle while attempting to triple jump.
In Japan, it's taken a whole lot more seriously than that.
Health and Sports Day was set up a couple of years after Tokyo hosted the 1964 Olympics as a way of promoting a healthy lifestyle. In practice, it means every school hosts its sports day at the same time and it's all taken far too seriously. It's held on the second Monday in October.
Still, at least the parents don't have to take a day off work in order to watch their little mites throw a discus through a car windscreen.
In Turkmenistan, the noble musk melon is tremendously important. So important, in fact, that the second Sunday in August is a public holiday dedicated to the most excellent fruit.
The holiday was introduced by the country's former president (and certifiable nutter) Saparmurat Niyazov. Given that he also had January renamed after his mother, banned beards and outlawed listening to car radios, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
The day sees melons — a major crop in Turkmenistan — being displayed all over the country. Meanwhile, the nation's 25 best melon growers are showered with gifts and dance and music performances kick off around the country.
Yes, we're all happy to laugh at melon celebrations and cow parades, but how many other countries give people a day off so that they can watch a horse race?
Formerly only a public holiday in the Melbourne metropolitan area, the joy was spread to the rest of the state last year, and now the day off is applicable for all Victorians on the first Tuesday in November.
The ACT also has Melbourne Cup Day as a public holiday, but in a cunning attempt to pretend it's not so everyone can get drunk and gamble their money away on a three-legged horse, it is called Family and Community Day.
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