‘Holi’-the festival of colours and one of the most
popular festivals in India just ended a week ago. It’s a festival that always
creates excitement in both young and old alike. Its a festival unique to India
and ‘colourful’ indeed. I always wonder if such festivals happen in other parts
of the world , which unite people and bring lots of fun, happiness and colour
in peoples life. I therefore, did a bit of research on internet and other
available literature to find out such interesting festivals and celebrations. I
could come across a few and I thought it would be a great idea to share with
you all. To begin with , just a peep into the festival of ‘holi’ celebrated in
India with lots of fanfare . ‘Holi’ nowadays is not only celebrated in India
but in many other parts of the world where Asians are in sizeable numbers and
it also draws the locals into the festivities and celebrations.
The festival of Holi is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March
every year. Originally a festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of
the land, Holi is now a symbolic commemoration of a legend from Hindu
Mythology. The story centres on an arrogant king who resents his son Prahlada
worshipping Lord Vishnu. He attempts to kill his son but fails each time.
Finally, the king's sister Holika who is said to be immune to burning sits with
the boy in a huge fire. However, prince Prahlada emerges unscathed, while his
aunt burns to death. Holi commemorates this event from mythology, and huge
bonfires are burnt on the eve of Holi as its symbolic representation. The
celebrations start thereafter with splash of colours –‘gulal’-the dry colours
and ofcourse the water colours use in abundance.
This exuberant festival is also associated with the
immortal love of Krishna and Radha, and hence, Holi is spread over 16 days in
Vrindavan as well as Mathura - the two cities with which Lord Krishna shared a
deep affiliation. Apart from the usual fun with coloured powder and water, Holi
is marked by vibrant processions which are accompanied by folk songs, dances
and a general sense of abandoned vitality.
‘Holi’-the festival of colours and one of the most
popular festivals in India just ended a week ago. It’s a festival that always
creates excitement in both young and old alike. Its a festival unique to India
and ‘colourful’ indeed. I always wonder if such festivals happen in other parts
of the world , which unite people and bring lots of fun, happiness and colour
in peoples life. I therefore, did a bit of research on internet and other
available literature to find out such interesting festivals and celebrations. I
could come across a few and I thought it would be a great idea to share with
you all. To begin with , just a peep into the festival of ‘holi’ celebrated in
India with lots of fanfare . ‘Holi’ nowadays is not only celebrated in India
but in many other parts of the world where Asians are in sizeable numbers and
it also draws the locals into the festivities and celebrations.
The festival of Holi is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March
every year. Originally a festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of
the land, Holi is now a symbolic commemoration of a legend from Hindu
Mythology. The story centres on an arrogant king who resents his son Prahlada
worshipping Lord Vishnu. He attempts to kill his son but fails each time.
Finally, the king's sister Holika who is said to be immune to burning sits with
the boy in a huge fire. However, prince Prahlada emerges unscathed, while his
aunt burns to death. Holi commemorates this event from mythology, and huge
bonfires are burnt on the eve of Holi as its symbolic representation. The
celebrations start thereafter with splash of colours –‘gulal’-the dry colours
and ofcourse the water colours use in abundance.
This exuberant festival is also associated with the
immortal love of Krishna and Radha, and hence, Holi is spread over 16 days in
Vrindavan as well as Mathura - the two cities with which Lord Krishna shared a
deep affiliation. Apart from the usual fun with coloured powder and water, Holi
is marked by vibrant processions which are accompanied by folk songs, dances
and a general sense of abandoned vitality.
La Tomatina
is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the
town of Bunol near Valencia in Spain. Thousands upon thousands of people make
their way from all nook and corner of
the world to fight in this 'World's
Biggest Food Fight' where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe
tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
The
tomato fight has been a strong tradition in Bunol since 1944-455. No one is
completely certain how this event originated. Possible theories on how the
Tomatina began include a local food fight among friends, a juvenile class war,
a volley of tomatoes from bystanders at a carnival parade, a practical joke on
a bad musician, and the anarchic aftermath of an accidental lorry spillage.
One
popular theory is that disgruntled townspeople attacked city councilmen with
tomatoes during a town celebration. Whatever happened to begin the tradition,
it was enjoyed so much that it was repeated the next year, and the year after
that, and so on. The holiday was banned during the Spanish State period under
Francisco Franco for having no religious significance, but returned in the
1970s after his demise.
Bunol is a town and municipality in the province of
Valencia, Spain and is situated approximately 38 km west of the provincial and
autonomous community capital city, Valencia
The Boryeong Mud
Festival is an annual festival which takes place during the summer in Boryeong,
a town around 200 km south of Seoul, South Korea.The mud is taken from
the Boryeong mud flats, and trucked to the Daecheon beach area, where it is
used as the centrepiece of the 'Mud Experience Land'. The mud is considered
rich in minerals and used to manufacture cosmetics. The festival was originally
conceived as a marketing vehicle for Boryeong mud cosmetics.Although the festival
takes place over a period of around two weeks, it is most famous for its final
weekend.
Koningsdag or King's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands. Celebrated on 27 April , the date marks the birth of King
Willem-Alexander. Koningsdag is known for its nationwide vrijmarkt
("free market"), at which many Dutch sell their secondhand items. It
is also an opportunity for "orange madness" , for the national
colour, when the normally strait-laced Dutch let down their hair, often dyed orange
for the occasion.
Haro
Wine Festival is a festival in the
town of Haro in the La Rioja region of northern Spain. It is held every year in
the summer and involves wine drinking competitions and contests and a Batalla
de Vino (Battle of Wine) where wines are poured at each other from buckets.
The celebration takes
place on June 29, the day of the patron saint San Pedro. The day begins with a
procession of people old and young, dressed in white shirts and red scarves,
all carrying jugs, bottles, botas and other types of containers filled with red
wine. Led by the town's mayor, on horseback, the procession winds through the
town to the Cliffs of Bilibio, where a mass is celebrated at the Hermitage of
San Felices de Bilibio. After the mass a true free-for-all begins, with
everyone tossing wine on each other until all are soaked from head to foot.
There is a sea of wet, pink shirts everywhere. Then at noon everyone returns to
town to celebrate at the Plaza de la Paz, followed by bullfights in the town's
bullring. But the bullfights are only for the youth, and the "bulls"
are actually just heifers.
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