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EveryParampara

Festivals and celebrations

The days a community stops, gathers and celebrates.

Festivals and celebrations are the days when a community stops its work, dresses up, eats together and makes noise. They may mark a season, a saint, a victory or just the pleasure of being together. From Carnival and Holi to Songkran and Oktoberfest, they show a place at its most generous and expressive. Many have religious roots, others are civic or seasonal, and a good number began as local fairs and grew famous. This page lists them by country, month and meaning, with notes on food, costume and music.

What makes a festival

Most festivals share a few features: a set date, a procession or gathering, special food, music and dance, a costume or colour, and an element of play. Some invert the usual order, letting servants command and the young tease the old, as at Carnival and Purim. Others are solemn, with lamps, silence or fasting. Whatever the tone, a festival gives people a shared memory, and the preparations, from cooking to costume making, are part of the pleasure.

Local and global

A festival that began in one village may now draw millions, and migrants carry festivals to new countries, where they take on new forms. Diwali is celebrated in London and Singapore, St Patrick's Day in Buenos Aires and Tokyo, Lunar New Year in Sydney and New York. At the same time, many small local festivals survive, and EveryParampara records these too, because a village fair is as much a part of the world's heritage as a great carnival.

About this page

Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Festivals and celebrations (kind of tradition). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
MealBreakfastLunchDinnerSupperTea-time and snacking customsTea, coffee and drinking ceremoniesSweets given and sharedFeasts and festival mealsFasting and breaking the fast
🇨🇱 ChileNgillatun A communal Mapuche rite of prayer, sacrifice and dance to maintain cosmic balanceSpiritual 🇮🇳 India and 4 moreWater lantern Small lamps floated on water to honour the dead and ask for good fortuneFestival 🇺🇬 UgandaKwanjula A formal marriage introduction ritual of the Baganda people in Uganda, where families meet to exchange gifts and seek blRite of passage 🇱🇦 Laos and 1 moreBaciບາສີ (Lao) A Lao rite that calls the soul home and ties a thread on the wrist for good luckSpiritual 🇸🇬 Singapore, SingaporeNational Day Parade Singapore's annual independence day celebration of parades, music and fireworksCeremony 🇲🇿 Island of Mozambique, MozambiqueTufo A women's dance of northern Mozambique, performed at Islamic feasts to drums and songPerformance 🇫🇷 France and 4 morePicnic A meal taken outdoors in a park or scenic spot, often shared with friends and family.Festival · Lunch 🇳🇬 Ibadan, Nigeria and 1 moreYoruba naming ceremonyÌkòlọ́pọ̀ Orúkọ Yorùbá A rite of passage where a newborn receives a destiny name through divination and family celebration.Rite of passage · Feasts and festival meals 🇮🇪 Ireland and 4 moreTrick-or-treating A custom where children visit homes in costume to ask for treats or face a playful prank.Festival · Sweets given and shared 🇴🇲 Salalah, Oman and 3 moreKhareefخَرِيْف The monsoon season of Dhofar and Al Mahrah, welcomed with a festival in SalalahSeasonal 🇪🇸 Pamplona, Spain and 3 moreRunning of the bullsencierro Runners sprint ahead of loose bulls through barricaded town streets in summerFestival 🇩🇰 Copenhagen, DenmarkFaroese chain danceFøroyskur dansur A living medieval chain dance guided by sung ballads in the Faroe IslandsPerformance 🇰🇬 Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan and 2 moreWorld Nomad GamesДүйнөлүк көчмөндөр оюндары A two-yearly contest of Central Asian nomadic sports, first staged in Kyrgyzstan in 2014Game 🇺🇸 New Orleans, United StatesKrewe Carnival clubs that stage parades, balls, and pageantry along the Gulf CoastFestival 🇧🇯 Porto-Novo, Benin and 3 moreZangbeto A traditional security institution and night-guardian cult among the Ogu people of West Africa.Ceremony 🇹🇻 TuvaluMusic of Tuvalu Rhythmic storytelling dances and choral singing from the Polynesian atolls of TuvaluPerformance 🇨🇳 Tianjin, ChinaManchu-Han Imperial Feast滿漢全席 A grand multi-day banquet uniting Manchu and Han culinary traditions in ChinaTable custom · Feasts and festival meals 🇲🇲 Yangon, MyanmarThadingyutသီတင်းကျွတ် A Burmese celebration and calendar month marking the completion of Buddhist Lent.Seasonal 🇮🇳 India and 1 moreAkhand Pathਅਖੰਡ ਪਾਠ The unbroken, continuous reading of the entire Sikh scripture over two daysSpiritual 🇵🇷 Ponce, Puerto Rico and 1 morePlena Puerto Rican folk songs and dance sharing community news with rhythmic frame drumsPerformance 🇮🇪 Dublin, Ireland and 2 moreIrish traditional music A living folk practice of dance tunes, airs, songs and communal pub sessionsPerformance 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesFlag Day An annual American observance marking the 1777 adoption of the national flagCeremony 🇵🇭 Philippines and 1 morePangalay A traditional fingernail dance of the Tausūg and Bajau peoples in the Sulu Archipelago and Sabah.Performance 🇪🇪 EstoniaJaanipäev Estonia's midsummer night of bonfires, song and fortune-telling, on 23 and 24 JuneFestival 🇦🇴 AngolaSemba A traditional style of music and partner dance from AngolaPerformance 🇦🇷 Córdoba, ArgentinaCuarteto An upbeat partner dance and music tradition born in Córdoba, ArgentinaPerformance 🇨🇳 China and 3 moreDragon dance舞龍 / 舞龙 A long dragon puppet on poles, danced by a team at Chinese New Year and other festivalsPerformance 🇳🇪 In-Gall, NigerCure Salée A yearly gathering of Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads in In-Gall to mark the end of the rainy season.Festival 🇺🇦 Chernivtsi, Ukraine and 5 moreVyshyvanka DayДень вишиванки An annual day for wearing traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts across the worldDress 🇸🇳 Senegal and 1 moreKumpo A palm-leaf figure of the Diola, danced at village festivals to urge good conductFolklore 🇮🇱 Jerusalem, Israel and 5 moreHoly FireἋγιον Φῶς A fire ceremony in Jerusalem each year, kept by Orthodox Christians before EasterSpiritual 🇺🇸 New Orleans, United StatesSecond line A New Orleans parade where clubs march and a crowd dances along behind the bandFestival 🇵🇭 PhilippinesPandanggo A lively Philippine folk dance of quick steps, clapping and balanced lightsPerformance 🇮🇪 Ireland and 2 moreJack-o'-lantern A carved pumpkin lantern lit with a candle to brighten and protect Halloween nightsFolklore 🇭🇹 Haiti and 1 moreRara A Haitian street music of bamboo trumpets and drums, played in the Easter seasonPerformance 🇮🇱 Israel and 3 moreDreidelדרײדל (Yiddish); סביבון (Hebrew) A four-sided top spun for small stakes, most often by Jewish families at HanukkahGame 🇨🇱 Santiago, Chile and 3 moreCueca A courtship dance of Chile and the Andes where partners trace circles with handkerchiefs to mimic a rooster and hen.Performance 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreChristmas carol Festive songs and hymns sung during the Christmas season and door to doorPerformance 🇬🇧 Pilton, United KingdomGlastonbury Festival A five-day summer performing arts festival held on Somerset farmlandFestival 🇹🇿 Zanzibar, TanzaniaSauti za Busara A February meeting of musicians in Zanzibar's Old FortPerformance 🇭🇳 Honduras and 4 morePunta A lively dance and music style of the Garifuna people, celebrated in Central America and the Caribbean.Performance 🇧🇹 Thimphu, BhutanArchery in Bhutanམདའ (da) Bhutan's national sport, played with bamboo bows at targets 145 metres awayGame 🇸🇦 Saudi ArabiaArdahالعرضة A traditional Arabian group dance of facing lines, drums, poetry, and swordsPerformance 🇺🇸 Falcon Heights, United StatesMinnesota State Fair Minnesota's twelve-day fair of farm animals, contests and food, ending on Labor DayFestival 🇮🇳 IndiaKambala An annual traditional buffalo race across muddy paddy fields in southwestern IndiaGame 🇬🇪 Tbilisi, Georgia and 4 moreGeorgian polyphonic singing Several voices at once, sung without instruments at Georgian feasts and weddingsPerformance 🇺🇸 Fairbanks, United States and 2 moreWorld Eskimo-Indian Olympics An annual Arctic gathering of traditional survival games, athletics, and cultural artsGame 🇪🇸 Seville, SpainHoly Week in SevilleSemana Santa de Sevilla A week of solemn processions and floats through the streets of Seville to mark the Passion of Christ.Spiritual
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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly EveryParampara

Every week: one tradition from somewhere new, what is being celebrated around the world this week, and one idea explained.