The Festivals by Syakirah Syamimi https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi en-us 2018-10-26 01:09:23 UTC 2019-05-15 04:36:55 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Ornamenttree.png The Day of the Dead kiramimi93 https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233107
 
The Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage (and others) living in the United States and Canada. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November.
 
People go to cemeteries to be with the souls of their dead relatives and build private altars containing the favorite foods and drinks as well as photos and personal possessions. The idea of this is to encourage the souls of their dead relatives to visit so they will hear their prayers.
 
The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico have their origins in the pre-Spanish cultures of America. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors had been followed by these civilizations for as long as 2,500–3,000 years. In these cultures was common to keep skulls and display them during celebrations to symbolize death and rebirth. 
]]> 2018-10-26 01:12:57 UTC https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233107 Guy Fawkes Night kiramimi93 https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233248
Guy Fawkes Night is an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November. It celebrates the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605. This was a terrorist plan by a man called Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, England. Soldiers found Guy Fawkes in the basement of the building preparing explosives and arrested him before he could do any damage.
 
The main part of the celebration involves building large fires in the open air and putting a model of Guy Fawkes on top. The Guy Fawkes model is usually made of old clothes stuffed with newspaper. At the same time, fireworks are let off. 
 
It is mainly celebrated in the United Kingdom and also in former British colonies including New Zealand, parts of Canada, and parts of the British Caribbean. 
]]> 2018-10-26 01:13:50 UTC https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233248 La Tomatina kiramimi93 https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233370
La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on a Wednesday towards the end of August each year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain. The week-long festival features music, parades, dancing, and fireworks.  The festival is in honor of the town's patron saints, Luis Bertràn and the Mare de Déu dels Desemparats (Mother of God of the Defenseless), a title of the Virgin Mary.
 
The tomato fight has been a strong tradition in Buñol since 1944 or 1945. No one is completely certain how this event originated. Possible theories on how the Tomatina began include a local food fight among friends or the result of an accidental lorry spillage. One of the most popular theories is that angy townspeople attacked city local politicians with tomatoes during a town celebration. 
]]> 2018-10-26 01:14:36 UTC https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233370 The Hong Kong Bun Festival kiramimi93 https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233507
This festival is held on the island on Cheung Chau in Hong Kong in early May every year, around the time of Buddha’s birthday. The festival celebrates the god Pak Tai, who drove pirates and illness away from the island. In the festival, the islanders pray for safety from pirates and illness. The festival lasts for seven days. For three
of those days everyone on the island is vegetarian. There is a procession through the village with lion dances, dragon dances and musicians. In the procession
children in colourful costumes are carried high above people’s heads. The islanders make three 20-metre high bamboo towers and cover these with buns. At midnight
on the last day people light fires and then climb the towers to get the buns. They wear bags on their backs to collect the buns and when they come down from the towers, they give them to everyone who is watching. Then everyone celebrates with fireworks.]]> 2018-10-26 01:15:26 UTC https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233507 The Land Diving Festival kiramimi93 https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233779
Pentecost Island in Vanuatu is famous for the Land Diving Festival, which takes place every Saturday in May. This festival celebrates the harvest, but there is an old
story which says that it began when a woman had an argument with her husband and ran off into the forest. He followed her and she climbed a tree to get away. He climbed the tree after her and she jumped down. He jumped after her and was injured. She was unhurt because she had tied a vine to her ankle which stopped her hitting the ground. Now the men of the island hold this festival every year. They
build a wooden tower, 20 to 30 metres high. They climb the tower and tie vines to their ankles. Then they jump off the tower. The people below sing and dance to
encourage them. The islanders believe that the higher you jump, the better the harvest will be. In the 1980’s the New Zealander AJ Hackett developed the modern
sport of bungy jumping, based on this festival.]]> 2018-10-26 01:16:55 UTC https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233779 May Day kiramimi93 https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233983
The first of May is called May Day in Britain. This is a very old festival held to celebrate the first day of summer. Many towns and villages still hold traditional May Day celebrations. Some towns and villages decorate the streets and houses with flowers. In others, there is dancing and the people put up a Maypole. This is a tall
pole with coloured ribbons hanging from the top. The dancers take a ribbon each and dance around the pole. As they dance, the ribbons make a colourful pattern
around the Maypole. 

It is also traditional to choose a May Queen and crown her.
She wears a white dress and a crown of flowers and walks at the front of a procession through the streets. 

In Padstow, a village in the south-west, two men dress up as horses and everyone follows them through the streets singing an old
song. In another village there is a ‘Cheese Rolling’ competition. Everyone goes to the top of a very steep hill. A big round cheese is rolled down the hill and everyone
tries to chase it. The winner gets free cheese for twenty years!]]> 2018-10-26 01:17:57 UTC https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297233983 The Snake Festival kiramimi93 https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297234199 Every year on the first Thursday in May the small village of Cocullo in
Italy sees thousands of visitors. They are all arriving to see the annual Snake Festival. The festival is held on Saint Dominic’s Day. St Dominic
lived in the town in the 11th century. At that time there were many snakes
in the village and many people died of snakebite. Saint Domenic got rid
of the snakes and the people of Cocullo hold this festival every year to
remember him. For some weeks before the festival, people collect
snakes and then, on St Dominic’s Day, they put all the snakes on a
statue of St Dominic. At midday they carry the statue and the snakes in a
procession through the village. At the front of the procession is a band
playing music and at the back are women in costume who give sweets
and bread shaped like snakes to the people who are watching. At the end
of the procession there are fireworks.]]> 2018-10-26 01:19:11 UTC https://padlet.com/kiramimi93/mlx2zqsfvqgi/wish/297234199