For the last 36 years, the city of Laguna Niguel, California, has been host to a bizarre tradition called the Mooning of the Amtrak. Every year on the second Saturday of July, hundreds to thousands of people gather along the fence outside of Mugs Away Saloon Camino Capistrano, and drop their pants to expose their behind as the Amtrak trains roll by. Even the trains slow down so that passengers can enjoy the show.

Like all harebrained ideas, Mooning of the Amtrak began with the promise of free alcohol. Legend has it that in 1979 a patron at the Mugs Away Saloon, which stands directly across the road from the railway, offered to buy a drink to anyone who would run outside to the rail road tracks and bare their bottoms, or “moon” at the next train. Some accepted the challenge and a ritual was born.

Photo credit: Chuck Coker/Flickr