Festival-going is an invaluable way to understand and appreciate local culture, offering visitors an exciting insight into another part of town or state outside its peak season. Festivals provide the ideal setting to discover a lively mix of both natives and travellers from near and far!
Make your festival even more satisfying by considering its deeper significance. Doing so makes the celebration all the more meaningful to all involved.
- Christmas
People worldwide celebrate Christmas, an international religious and secular holiday, which is most commonly observed by Christians but also by many other religious denominations and non-Christians alike. Some traditions associated with Christmas celebrations include decorating trees, setting up nativity scenes and spending time with family; other activities may be more universal, such as exchanging gifts or singing Christmas carols; however, their details vary widely across nations.
Christmas celebrations take place worldwide each year on December 25, the Feast of Epiphany or Three Kings Day, but many cultures also observe Three Kings Day to mark its importance to their society as a cultural artefact.
Children in some European countries leave their shoes out for Saint Nicholas on December 5, while mischievous ones fear Krampus, a devil-like figure who punishes misdeeds. Meanwhile, in Central America, Christmas is celebrated by setting off fireworks of various types, including smaller firecrackers called volcancitos or estrellitas as well as larger Roman candles.
- Diwali
Diwali is one of the largest holidays celebrated annually by over one billion Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs globally and is widely known as the Festival of Lights. Diwali symbolises light triumphing over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and goodness over evil.
Home decorations typically include the lighting of small earthen lamps known as diyas and intricate rangoli patterns created on the floor using coloured powder or rice to welcome Lakshmi as the goddess of wealth and prosperity. People celebrate by providing gifts for loved ones as well as praying for the souls of ancestors who have passed on.
Countries with sizable Indian populations, like the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, typically host large-scale Diwali events held in parks and public spaces, featuring performances, Indian food offerings, and spectacular fireworks displays. If you’re unable to attend one of these local celebrations, there’s always the option of celebrating Diwali at home with family and friends; shared rituals can help foster an atmosphere of belonging while simultaneously helping to bridge cultural divides.
- New Year
The New Year marks a time of fresh starts and renewal. While January 1st is typically celebrated around the globe as New Year’s, its actual start may occur differently depending on each culture’s calendar.
Nowruz (Persian New Year), for instance, typically falls on the vernal equinox in mid-March and families prepare for it by setting out an elaborate “Haft-Seen” table filled with symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey, which symbolise hopes for a sweet year and pomegranates, which represent abundance and good luck.
Matariki, or Maori New Year, commemorates the presence of the Pleiades star cluster in the predawn sky with feasting and traditional dancing. Scotland, on the other hand, marks New Year with Hogmanay dinner; guests entering your home for Hogmanay are customarily welcomed with “first footing,” in which whoever enters first is bestowed good fortune for the year to come. Spain and Portugal consume 12 grapes at midnight, as each sound of the clock bell signifies a momentous moment of time!
- Holi
Holi, or the Festival of Colours, is an auspicious Hindu holiday that honours love, peace, and joy, as well as heralding spring’s arrival. Held annually on Phalguna full moon day (typically late February or early March), it brings joyous festivities celebrated worldwide by Hindus of all religions.
At this event, people use brightly coloured powder dye to smear each other with it and create patterns on each other with colourful powder dye. Each of the colours has a special meaning: red stands for love, green represents fertility, yellow stands for prosperity, and pink stands for happiness—all accompanied by music, dancing, and enjoying sweet treats such as gujiyas.
Holi in India is also known as Rangwali Holi or Dhuleti, with bonfires lit the night before in honour of burning away internal evils. This custom dates back to Hindu mythology’s Hiranyakashyap and Prahlada stories; when Prahlada became devoted to Vishnu and was targeted by his aunt Holika for being such a devotee, Holika plotted against Prahlada’s life by killing him off due to his faith.
- Dia de los Muertos
As millions of Mexicans both inside and outside Mexico do each November, Garcia Lopez prepared for Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, an ancient tradition that blends Indigenous and Catholic beliefs to commemorate those who have passed. Nov. 1–2 are set aside specifically to remember both children and adults who have died.
Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica is where this tradition can be traced back to, dating back some 3,000 years. Aztecs and other Nahua people believed death to be only temporary; during this celebration, it’s believed that death becomes less real and brief moments of reunion occur between living people and deceased ones. Family members construct altars called ofrendas for each deceased individual and visit family gravesites to decorate them with colorful garlands or candles.
No matter where they celebrate Dia de los Muertos, there are always unique variations of its celebration. Guatemala hosts a festival called Festival de Barriletes Gigantes or “The Festival of Giant Kites,” where families come together and fly giant kites as a means of communicating with loved ones who have passed on. Ecuador commemorates it by making special pastries that resemble baby skulls; Guatemala hosts its Festival de Barriletes Gigantes; and in Egypt, the holiday is commemorated with flying enormous kites over which to communicate.
