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.
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.
🇹🇲 Ashgabat, Turkmenistan and 2 moreTurkmen rugTürkmen haly
Handmade textiles woven by Turkmen tribes, featuring geometric patterns and natural dyes.Craft
🇬🇪 GeorgiaTamadaთამადა
The toastmaster who leads the Georgian supra, guiding toasts and conversation at feasts.Etiquette
🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaGeorgian danceქართული ცეკვა
Martial, courtship, and celebratory regional dances from across GeorgiaPerformance
🇰🇬 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
🇬🇪 Tbilisi, Georgia and 4 moreGeorgian polyphonic singing
Several voices at once, sung without instruments at Georgian feasts and weddingsPerformance
🇬🇪 GeorgiaRtveliრთველი
A Georgian harvest festival marking the grape picking season with feasts and folk songs.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇦🇲 Armenia and 2 moreVardavarՎարդավառ
An Armenian midsummer festival where people playfully douse each other with waterFestival
🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaChichilakiჩიჩილაკი
A shaved hazelnut branch crafted as a Georgian Christmas tree and burned at EpiphanyFestival
🇦🇿 AzerbaijanNovruzNovruz Bayramı
The Azerbaijani spring equinox festival of bonfires, sweets and sprouted wheatSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇦🇿 Goychay, AzerbaijanGoychay Pomegranate FestivalGöyçay nar festivalı
An annual gathering in Azerbaijan honouring regional pomegranates, crafts and musicFestival
🇹🇲 Ashgabat, TurkmenistanMelon Day
A nationwide summer holiday in Turkmenistan honoring the country's prized melonsTable custom
🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaTbilisobaთბილისობა
An annual October festival celebrating the culture, harvest, and history of TbilisiFestival
🇺🇿 Bukhara, UzbekistanNavruzNavroʻz
The spring equinox festival celebrated across Uzbekistan with sumalak and family visits.Seasonal · Sweets given and shared
🇬🇪 GeorgiaAlaverdobaალავერდობა
A harvest and saint's feast celebrated at Alaverdi Cathedral in eastern GeorgiaSpiritual
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan and 5 moreKurashкөрәш
Central Asian traditional upright folk wrestling using cloth belts or towelsGame
🇬🇪 GeorgiaBerikaobaბერიკაობა
An improvised Georgian folk theatre and masquerade of fertility, satire and dramaPerformance · Feasts and festival meals
🇦🇲 Armenia and 1 moreTrndezտրնդեզ
An Armenian fire feast forty days after Christmas, kept with bonfires and shared sweetsSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇦🇲 ArmeniaHoly TuesdayMegali Triti
A day of church services in Holy Week that remembers biblical parables about vigilance and readiness.Festival
🇦🇲 Armenia and 5 moreFeast of the TransfigurationՊայծառակերպութիւն
A Christian holy day marking the revelation of Christ's divine glory on Mount TaborSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇿 Tashkent, UzbekistanIndependence DayOʻzbekiston Respublikasi Mustaqilligi kuni
A state holiday on 1 September marking Uzbekistan's break from the Soviet UnionCeremony
🇺🇿 Namangan, UzbekistanFlower Festival in UzbekistanGul bayrami
An annual spring celebration of floriculture and floral art held across several cities in Uzbekistan.Festival
🇺🇿 Bukhara, UzbekistanAsrlar Sadosi
An annual outdoor festival celebrating Uzbek folk arts, sports, crafts, and heritageFestival
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- World Nomad Games: Save the Dream, CC BY 2.0, source
- Rtveli: Grigory Gagarin, Public domain, source
- Vardavar: Камалян001, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Chichilaki: Mostafameraji, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kurash: IlshatS, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Novruz: Abutalub, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Goychay Pomegranate Festival: Moonsun1981, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Melon Day: AltynAsyr, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tbilisoba: DDohler, CC BY 2.0, source
- Navruz: dalbera, CC BY 2.0, source
- Alaverdoba: Grigory Gagarin, Public domain, source
- Turkmen rug: AltynAsyr, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tamada: Niko Pirosmani, Public domain, source
- Trndez: Armineaghayan, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Independence Day: Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Holy Tuesday: Brothers Dalziel / John Everett Millais, CC0, source
- Feast of the Transfiguration: Unknown artist, Public domain, source
- Asrlar Sadosi: Patisserie, CC BY-SA 3.0, source