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July 20, 2009 |
Our muddy world
Combine two of the most common materials found on the surface of our planet - dirt and water - and you get mud, which, in turn, can be played in, struggled through, rubbed on for medicinal value, or just worn for fun. Collected over the past few months from festivals sporting events and more, you'll find here photographs of people around the world playing with, wallowing in, wearing and just dealing with mud - one of the filthiest entries on the Big Picture to date. (31 photos total)

Players vie for the ball at the 2009 Swamp Soccer World Championships near Hyrynsalmi, Finland July 17, 2009. A natural swamp outside the town of Hyrynsalmi was converted into 22 playing fields for the 325 teams, made up of almost 5000 players from Finland, Norway, Russia, Germany, France and The Netherlands. (REUTERS/Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva) #

Therese Hebda, 7, of Trenton, Michigan plays with hundreds of other children in a giant lake of mud at the annual Mud Day event July 7, 2009 in Westland, Michigan. The event is sponsored by the Wayne County Parks and Recreation Department and the mud hole is made with approximately 200 tons of topsoil and 20,000 gallons of water. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) #

Jockey Nestor Maldonado, 28, of San Juan, Puerto Rico finishes second riding Win Jane's Heart on June 24, 2007 at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Massachusetts. "If its raining, I don't care. I need to ride. The mud is secondary. Mud is mud. It hurts a little bit. It feels like sand blasting. Sometimes you can't see. I have five goggles and I keep pulling them down over my face... Sometimes the mud comes in clumps, sometimes it comes like needles. I only like the way it tastes if I win." (Boston Globe Staff Photo) #

Nepalese farmers splash mud at each other as they plant rice in a field on the outskirts of Kathmandu on June 29, 2009. The farmers of Nepal celebrate National Paddy Day on 'Asar 15' of the Nepali calendar each year as they begin their annual rice planting season. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images) #

Barbara "Redneck Queen" Bailey shows the crowd the proper way to do the Bellyflop during the 13th Annual Summer Redneck Games July 11, 2009 in East Dublin, Georgia. Bailey won the event several years running in the 1990s. Started in 1996 as a spoof for the summer Olympics held in Atlanta, the games feature bobbing for pigs feet, hub cap hurling and the mud pit belly flop contest for trophies. (Stephen Morton/Getty Images) #

Women soldiers crawl through mud during a marine corp training session at a military base in Cavite city, south of Manila July 8, 2009. The Philippine marines have started recruiting women soldiers for front line duties including fighting Islamic militants on the restive southern Philippines island of Mindanao where an Italian red cross engineer has been held captive for nearly six months by Muslim rebels linked to Jemaah Islamiah. (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco) #

A Catholic devotee, covered in mud and donning dried banana leaves, attends a mass in celebration of Saint John The Baptist at Aliaga township, Nueva Ecija province, 150 kilometers north of Manila, Philippines on Wednesday June 24, 2009. Hundreds of devotees in this remote township cover themselves with mud and wear banana leaves in a unique practice seeking blessings and celebrating abundant harvest. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) #

Unidentified visitors help each other to smear mud over their faces and bodies in a traditional practice where the mud is used as a cure for various bodily ailments. The black mud comes from the lake near the Black sea town of Pomorie, east of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. Phoot taken on Saturday, July 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov) #

A woman covered in mineral mud stands by the Dead Sea on May 28, 2009. Geologist Eli Raz says a recent sinkhole phenomenon, underground craters that can burrow to the surface in an instant, sucking in whatever lies above, stems from a dire water shortage, compounded in recent years by a growing population and robust tourism and chemical industries in the Dead Sea area. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty) #
More links and information
Boryeong Mud Festival - Official site
Redneck Games - Official site
Swamp Soccer World Championship - Official site