Americans traditionally celebrate the Fourth of July with cookouts and fireworks, and sometimes a parade. Some towns tried something strange and different at one time or another, and the event was so popular it became a holiday tradition. In Hannibal, Missouri, they're celebrating Tom Sawyer Days in honor of Mark Twain. On the fourth you can see the National Fence Painting Contest, in which participants race to paint a section of a wooden fence faster than anyone else, just as Tom Sawyer tricked his friends into doing the chore for him. In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, you can catch the first Fourth of July parade of the year because it starts at midnight. In Bristol, Vermont, the holiday isn't complete until the Great Bristol Outhouse Race is run. And in Key West, Florida, they have the annual Key Lime Pie-eating Contest, a race to eat a whole pie the fastest without using your hands.
Read about these oddball Independence Day traditions and more, ten of them in all, at Smithsonian.
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