It's International Kiwi Floating Day

Wed Apr 22, 2026 3:49 pm

Kiwiland's annual celebration of Kiwi Floating gets underway today with hundreds of people already gathering around lakes and large puddles, kiwi in hand, ready to see if they float.

The tradition has been a yearly event in Kiwiland since the 12th century, when Dutch pioneers first discovered the birds resting next to a lake in the province of Watunatonger. Back then the Dutch sailors were a superstitious and cautious people who believed many of the birds contained the spirits of witches ; by throwing the flightless birds into the lake they were able to determine which were witches and which weren't witches - which ones floated were witches, and the others that didn't which weren't witch.

Though the tradition continues today largely unchanged, in our more enlightened times we know that all Kiwis float and all are witches. Still worth chucking them into a lake before eating them though, just to make sure.

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