- What traditions do you have for spring?
Why not bring in the season of spring than with spring festivals? Here are five festivals from around the world and a lot of them have something to do with water!
Japan has Kanamara Matsuri or the Festival of Fertility,
every springtime in Kawasaki, Japan. The tradition for these celebrations involves prayer for fertility, smooth marital relations and prosperity in business. Through these celebrations there’s a lot of drinking, dressing up, phallic-shaped foods and large penis-shaped shrines. Locals and tourists alike run to the streets brandishing objects of all shapes and sizes, all for a good laugh. Do you think this is one of the spring festivals you’d want to attend?
Spain has the Las Fallas or the Festival of Fire. The
festival takes places in March, in the city of Valencia, Spain. This festival honors Saint Joseph and signifies the coming of spring. Within these celebrations, there are pyrotechnics, firecrackers, street parties, and even 18-century costumes. A huge part of Las Fallas is also the burning of the ninots, or large satirical sculptures made out of papier-mache. Each year, the people vote for one that will escape the plane and it’s secured in the Las Fallas Museum. The fireworks are enough for me to rate this at the very top of the best spring festivals.
The Water Splashing Festival takes place in Thailand.
Also called the Songkam Water Festival, it begins on April 13th each year. This is Thailand’s way of starting the Buddhist New Year with a national water fight! Songkram can last for days, is celebrated through monasteries, paying respect to elders and soaking others with huge amounts of water. In the area of Chang Mai, locals and tourists alike are seen in the streets dancing to music and splashing water.
The festival of Scrambled Eggs, also known as Cimburijada, is a spring tradition in Zenica, Bosnia.
People here gather together by the Bosna River in the early hours and all have scrambled eggs! You will find them next to the river with a large pan on low heat and countless boxes of eggs. Eggs symbolize new life for the people and they spend the rest of the day barbecuing partying and jumping into the river, as this is also the start of the swimming season. Would you like spring festivals if they centered around scrambled eggs?
In the spring in India, Holi is the festival of colors. This ancient Hindu festival takes place each spring, also celebrating Radha Krishna’s external love. People
gather together in open spaces to throw colorful powder called gulal at each other, causing colorful faces and plumes of rainbows. Each color represents certain aspects of the celebrations, blue: krishna, red: love, yellow: turmeric (a spice in Indian Food) and green: spring. This celebration is a joy-filled day of love and laughter.
So, will you be celebrating any of these spring festivals? Let me know in the comments!