Articles in Festivals

It is said that when God takes birth, the world is the carpet and the universe is the witness. Such is the grandeur that is seen during the Indian festival Ganesh Chaturthi. This Hindu festival of the son of the Indian God Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati is celebrated revering the birth of Lord Ganesha the god of  wisdom and fortune. So come the months of August- September and India is replete with celebrations of this festival especially in Western and Southern India. It is also celebrated in the United States, Fiji and Canada apart from nearby Nepal. It is believed that the great Indian leader Chhatrapati Shivaji started this festival and it was the Indian social leader Lokmanya Tilak who converted it into a much publicized festival with a bid to end the gap between Indian communities. Thus  [...]

People in the Republic of South Africa truly love their music. This is the reason, a large share of the festivals of South Africa are base on music. The most widely celebrated ones among them are: Ardklop Art Festival, Arts Alive, Cape Town Jazz Festival, Joy of Jazz and Splashy Fen. In this article, we will get acquainted with The South African Festival of Splashy Fen.Splashy Fen was first arranged in the year 1990. The first year of this festival hosted the celebrations amid an exceedingly humble setup. However, after 22 years of celebration, this festival has now become one of the biggest events on the festival map of South Africa. The event is held in a farm known as the Splashy farm, from where the name of the festival comes. If you are coming from another country of the world to take  [...]

Yam festival is an African festival held in the month of August or September i.e. during the end of monsoon. Yam festival is primarily a festival of Nigeria and Ghana. The natives Nigeria and Ghana also often refer this festival as Iriji and Homowo respectively. In Ghana, Yam festival is celebrated in a number of rural areas. If you visit a village of Ghana during Yam, you will find women digging up yams and carrying them home. You will come across women with baskets filled with yams on their head lined up across the village roads. Everyone wants to be the part of a family yielding the highest amount of crops. The responsibility of preparing the feast belongs to the young girls and women of the village. On the other hand, the best yams are carried by a little boy when inner time comes; behind  [...]

Durga Puja or Durgotsav is a festival in the Southern Part of Asia celebrated by the Hindus. It is held in celebration of the Goddess Durga. It is observed for 10 days. It is mainly celebrated in West Bengal, Jharkand, Assam and Orissa. It is the biggest festival celebrated amongst the Hindus. This festival also includes the worship of Lord Shiva who is considered to be Lord Dura’s husband. A banana tree is also worshipped during this festival. Besides Goddess Durga, Goddess Saraswati, Lord Ganesha and Lord Karthik are worshipped during this festival. There are huge mandaps and pandals inside which the idols are kept after due to worship and pomp. History has it that Goddess Durga started being worshipped in the freedom movement in Bengal. It started with a small celebration being held  [...]

I have been here for no more than an hour. It is the Corpus Christi festival held in Cuenca, Ecuador but I’ve known her for more than a few weeks now. The little mop-haired, beady eyed girl can be no more than seven or eight years old, even if she looks older than her age. Ours was a friendship forged on the sort of opening line one friend doesn’t normally say to another. In halting English, she asked me if I wanted my shoes polished. I politely refused her offer, smiling inwardly when I saw that I was wearing a pair of simple canvas sneakers that she couldn’t have polished at all. I found her lack of observation interesting; she found my wobbly Spanish to be even more interesting. In the weeks that followed, she taught me (at my request) several gestures and phrases that would doubtlessly  [...]

It is the last Wednesday in August that marks a bloodbath unlike any other. At least it looks like blood from afar, but upon closer inspection you find out that it is nothing more than the remains of a tomato that is no more (may it rest…in pieces). It’s like I’m in some odd Hollywood film set, the red gunk overflowing everywhere, but what it really is an orgy of tomatoes like you’ve never seen it. It’s messy, it’s unapologetically tomato-ey and it’s a big ticket for tourism, Buñol, 40 km due west of Valencia, finds its population swelling four fold come this time of year, and its carnage and good-mannered fighting packaged in the form of a festival. The madness hits the town’s central square and no sooner does the clock strike the 11th hour of the day than a large pole is  [...]

Post the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, people ignored the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan as they stopped visiting the center of the town. This loss of vitality made famed actor Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal create the Tribeca Film Festival. The film festival was a united response of the celebration of movies and entertainment, to condemn the terrorist attacks. The main motive of the festival was to bring the common public and the international film society together to instill in them the power of movies and redefine the whole experience. This festival was pioneered to celebrate New York City as the numero uno destination for the film making community. And the funds generated are used to help in the long standing recreation and development  [...]

Festivals are celebrated throughout the world, by different varieties of castes, tribes, cultures, and sex. The main reason as to why festivals are celebrated can be attributed to many factors, but the foremost one is fear in God. Apart from this, celebrating festivals can be attributed to also taking a week or a day leave from the strenuous schedule of work and being with family and friends, or just adding a day onto our culture diary! The Aboriginals in Canada has a number of festivals that they celebrate. Some of them still exist, while others have swept away with time. The Morning Dance The Morning Dance takes place every Spring by the Ojibwa, Southern Ontario. It can also be called as Wabeno. The Aboriginals fast and cleanse themselves before an elder male member plays the drum and the  [...]

Life is beautiful and for making life more of merry we people do is celebrate! Have festivals and special occasions or mark such days which have importance may be for historical significance or may be geographical significance or personal significance human just need a reason to get together and just have fun, entertain themselves and feel happy by boozing, dancing and singing. We just love to rave and make raucous for the name of being happy for some event. Anyways this makes life more beautiful and fun to live. Listing down below are such celebrations and festivals which if given an opportunity you must go for- to get enthralled and regaled in merriment. Naadam Festival in the Ulaanbaatar of the Mongolia From the time when reign of the invader Genghis Kahn, Mongolians have adhere intensely  [...]

Celebrations could be from just lightening candles in Christmas to having rave madness in Rio’s carnival. If there is something which is beyond any taboos and norms is the way man can celebrate. And man does it. Man can celebrate anything, any ways and any where. Even if it means in middle of some desert where the temperatures are of scorching heat and speckles of sand in your eyes. And such is the celebration of Tuareg Festival which has been happening each spring, from last three years, in the hot desert of Sahara. It’s just two hours drive in north of Agadez, Niger, that’s actually in middle of desert- the Sahara. The Niger’s national government along with the local Tuareg tribal people organizes this Festival Tuareg. What’s that making it so exciting that you come from half way  [...]

The much liked and famous festival of Nevada, where over 48,000 people come together to celebrate, is again around the corner. It’s starting from August 30 to September 6, 2010. Burning Man is held every year on the Nevada Playa called Black Rock Desert. People who have been to the burning man have had totally different experience. The visitors said they have been transformed and found meaning to their life. As it said that, it is an end and new start to the journey of Burning Man. In order to understand the festival, you need to visit and participate in it. While being there, you will realize you are building a new community and your contribution to it is as important as anyone. You will be motivated to survive. Exposed to the 107 degree of heat and within few minutes your body will start  [...]