GUMATAPURA, India: Dozens of exuberant villagers scooped up handfuls of cow dung to mould and toss at each other like snowballs this week for the Gorehabba festival, a local conclusion to India's most important festival, Diwali.

Similar to Spain's La Tomatina - an eccentric tomato-hurling celebration of the local fruit - residents of Gumatapura village instead fling something more earthy at each other: cow dung.