Greatest Festivals in the World

Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, China

The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival  has been held since 1963. It had been interrupted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution but had been resumed by 1985. Harbin is located in Northeast China under the direct influence of the cold winter wind from Siberia. The average temperature in summer is 21.2 degrees Celsius, -16.8 degrees Celsius in winter. Annual low temperatures below -35C are not uncommon.Officially, the festival starts January 5th and lasts one month. However the exhibits often open earlier and stay longer, weather permitting. Ice sculpture decoration technology ranges from the modern (usinglasers) to traditional (with ice lanterns). While there are ice sculptures throughout the city, there are two main exhibition areas: Enormous snow sculptures at Sun Island (a recreational area on the opposite side of the Songhua River from the city) and the separate "Ice and Snow World" that operates each night. Ice and Snow World features illuminated full size buildings made from blocks of 2–3 feet thick crystal clear ice directly taken from the Songhua River. There are ice lantern park touring activities held in many parks in the city. Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli alpine skiing, winter-swimming in the Songhua River, and the ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden. The Harbin festival is the largest ice and snow festival in the world. Other large ice and snow festivals include Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival. The 2007 festival featured the Canadian theme, in memoriam of Canadian doctor Norman Bethune. It was also a Guinness Record of the largest snow sculpture: 250 metres long, 28 feet (8.5 m) high, using over 13,000 cubic metres of snow. The composition consisted of two parts: "Niagara Falls" and "Crossing the Bering Strait" (the latter depicting the migration of the First Nations).

 Holi Festival, India 

Holi is a spring festival celebrated as a festival of colors  It is a Hindu religious festival which has also become popular with people of other communities.It is primarily observed in India and Nepal. It is also observed by the minority Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan as well in countries with large Indic diasporapopulations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mauritius, andFiji.Holi is also known as Phagwah, Festival of Colours, or Doḷajātra  in Odisha, and as Dol Jatra  or Basantotsav  in West Bengal and Assam. Holi is of particular significance in the Braj region, which includes locations traditionally connected to the Lord Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandgaon, Uttar Pradesh, and Barsana, which become tourist destinations during the season of Holi. As per the Hindu calendar, Holi is celebrated on the Phalguna Purnima (Full Moon), which comes in February or March in the Gregorian Calendar.

The Carnival of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Carnival of Brazil  is an annual festival held during the Friday to the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter. On certain days of Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally abstained from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term "carnival," from carnelevare, "to remove (literally, "raise") meat." Carnival has roots in the pagan festival of Saturnalia, which, adapted to Catholicism became a farewell to well things in a season of religious discipline to practice repentance and prepare for Christ's death and resurrection.
Rhythmatic, participation, and costumes vary from one region of Brazil to another. In the southeastern cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Vitória, huge organized parades are led by samba schools. Those official parades are meant to be watched by the public, while minor parades ("blocos") allowing public participation can be found in other cities. The northeastern cities of Salvador, Porto Seguro and Recifehave organized groups parading through streets, and public interacts directly with them. This carnival is also influenced by African-Brazilian culture. It's a six-day party where crowds follow the trios elétricosthrough the city streets, dancing and singing. Also in northeast, Olinda carnival features unique characteristics, heavily influenced by local folklore and cultural manifestations, such as Frevo and Maracatu.
The typical genres of music of Brazilian carnival are, in Rio de Janeiro (and Southeast Region in general): the samba-enredo, the samba de bloco, the samba de embalo and the marchinha; in Pernambuco andBahia (and Northeast Region in general) the main genres are: the frevo, the maracatu,the samba-reggae and Axémusic.Carnival is the most famous holiday in Brazil and has become an event of huge proportions. Except the industries, malls and the carnival related workers, the country stops completely for almost a week and festivities are intense, day and night, mainly in coastal cities.Rio de Janeiro's carnival alone drew 4.9 million people in 2011, with 400,000 being foreigners.

Songkran Water Festival, Thailand

The Songkran festival listen; from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti, or literally "astrological passage" is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia.The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed. If these days fall on a weekend, the missed days off are taken on the weekdays immediately following. Songkran falls in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, at the end of the dry season. Until 1888 the Thai New Year was the beginning of the year in Thailand; thereafter 1 April was used until 1940. 1 January is now the beginning of the year. The traditional Thai New Year has been a national holiday since then.

Sandfest, Port Aransas, Texas

The Texas Sand Sculpture Festival is one of the largest beach festivals in Texas on the beautiful, sun-soaked Port Aransas beach. Master Sculptors from around the world, as well as a many children and amateurs, will put their creative skills to work to create the most artistic, imaginative sand sculptures at Texas SandFest. The 3-day event starts Friday, April 26, 2013 and runs through Sunday, April 28. Along with the sand sculptures, there will also be vendors live music and entertainers, sand sculpting lessons and more. View the full schedule of activities.

La Tomatina, Buñol, Spain

 La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, a town located 30 km from the Mediterranean, in which participants throw tomatoes and get involved in this tomato fight purely for fun. It is held on the last Wednesday of August, during the week of festivities of Buñol.

 Diwali Festival of Lights

Deepavali or Diwali , popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a five-day Hindu festival which starts on Dhanteras, celebrated on the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna paksha (dark fortnight) of the Hindu calendar month Ashwin and ends on Bhaubeej, celebrated on second lunar day of Shukla paksha (bright fortnight) of the Hindu calendar month Kartik. Dhanteras usually falls eighteen days after Dussehra. In the Gregorian calendar, Diwali falls between mid-October and mid-November.
Diwali is an official holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore and Fiji.
For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. For Jains, Diwali marks the attainment of moksha ornirvana by Mahavira in 527 BCE. Arya Samajists, celebrate this day as Death Anniversary of Swami Dayanand Saraswati. They also celebrate this day as Shardiya Nav-Shasyeshti.
The name "Diwali" or "Divali" is a contraction of "Deepavali" (Sanskrit: दीपावली Dīpāvalī), which translates into "row of lamps". Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.^[9] These lamps are kept on during the night and one's house is cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome.Firecrackers are burst because it is believed that it drives away evil spirits.During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends.
The festival starts with Dhanteras on which most Indian business communities begin their financial year. The second day of the festival is called the Naraka Chaturdasi. Amavasya, the third day of Diwali, marks the worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The fourth day of Diwali is known as Kartika Shudda Padyami. The fifth day is referred to as Yama Dvitiya (also called Bhai Dooj), and on this day sisters invite their brothers to their homes.

Halloween Festival of the Dead, Salem, Massachusetts, USA

Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening"), also known as All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the WesternChristian feast of All Hallows (or All Saints) and the day initiating the triduum of Hallowmas.According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a Christianised feast originally influenced by western European harvest festivals, and festivals of the dead with possible pagan roots, particularly the CelticSamhain.^[6][8][9] Other scholars maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (also known as "guising"), attending costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.

Keene Pumpkin Festival, New Hampshire, USA

The Keene Pumpkin Festival (a.k.a. Pumpkin Fest or P-Fest amongst teens) is a yearly celebration held in Keene, New Hampshire, United States around Halloween. Each year, Keene residents and citizens from around the area attempt to amass the largest number of lit jack-o'-lanterns in one place, trying to meet or beat the world record (which they have held for many years).The Keene Pumpkin Festival previously held the record (as recognized by the Guinness World Records) of 28,952 set at this celebration on October 25, 2003, but this was broken when Boston, Massachusetts collected 30,128 on October 21, 2006. At first it was believed that Boston did not have an official count, merely a sign-in for each pumpkin. But it was later determined that each pumpkin was indeed registered and counted, causing Guinness to confirm the record in a certificate issued to Camp Sunshine, the event beneficiary and organizer of the festival. Camp Sunshine is a national non-profit retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.The organizers attempt yearly to beat this record by encouraging businesses, organizations, schools and individuals to create and donate jack-o'-lanterns which are displayed on many enormous banks of shelves and all available surfaces around the center of town.The festivities also include fireworks, music, and food, and draw in people from all over New Hampshire and adjoining states.Almost immediately after the festival is over, the pumpkins are hauled away by volunteer work crews and given to pig farmers, to use as food.The event is held on a Saturday in mid-to-late-October. Keene Pumpkin Festival 2009 was held on Saturday October 17, and an estimated 70,000 people attended the event. The official total, announced on October 21, was 29,762 pumpkins, a new Keene record, but not enough to beat the world record.The largest ever crowd to attend the event was in 2006, which drew an estimated 80,000 people from around the world to downtown Keene.By comparison, the population of Keene is nearly 23,000.In 2010, the Keene Pumpkin Festival organizers, Center Stage Cheshire County, stepped down from running the event, leaving it in limbo for 2011.The festival was able to secure new organizers, however, and the Pumpkin Festival continued in 2011, taking place on October 22.

Pushkar Camel Festival, India

The Pushkar Fair, or Pushkar ka Mela, is the annual five-day camel and livestock fair, held in the town of Pushkar in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is one of the world's largest camel fairs, and apart from buying and selling of livestock it has become an important tourist attraction and its highlights have become competitions such as the "matka phod", "longest moustache", and "bridal competition" are the main draws for this fair which attracts thousands of tourists.^[1] In recent years the fair has also included an exhibition cricket match between the local Pushkar club and a team of random foreign tourists. TheImperial Gazetteer of India, mentions an attendance of 100,000 pilgrims in early 1900s.      

Sham ennisim

                      

Sham ennisim  is an Egyptian national holiday marking the beginning of spring. It always falls on the day after the Eastern Christian Easter (following the custom of the largest Christian denomination in the country, the Coptic Orthodox Church). Despite the Christian-related date, the holiday is celebrated by Egyptians regardless of religion.The name of the holiday is derived from the Egyptian name of the Harvest Season, known as Shemu, which means a day of creation. According to annals written by Plutarch during the 1st century AD, theAncient Egyptians used to offer salted fish, lettuce, and onions to their deities on this day.After the Christianization of Egypt, the festival became associated with the other Christian spring festival, Easter. Over time, Shemu morphed into its current form and its current date, and by the time of theIslamic conquest of Egypt, the holiday was settled on Easter Monday. The Islamic calendar being lunar and thus unfixed relative to the solar year, the date of Sham el-Nessim remained on the Christian-linked date even after most Egyptians had become Muslims. As Egypt became Arabized, the term Shemu found a rough phono-semantic match in Sham el-Nessim, or "Smelling/Taking In of the Zephyrs," which fairly accurately represents the way in which Egyptians celebrate the holiday.

Source Wikipedia/Google

Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

Women speak about 20,000 words a day while men only speak 7,000

The stereotype is pervasive: women are talkative, men are not. Women love to share their feelings and talk things to death, while men are stoic and don’t feel the need to chat as much. It turns out that the basic fact behind this stereotype are true: women do speak more than men.
A lot more. Women have been found to speak about 20,000 words per day while men only speak about 7,000 words. That’s quite the difference. It turns out that women speak faster as well—sometimes twice as fast.

THIS IS CRUEL: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

There are a lot of interesting and random phopias out there. Dendrophobia is the fear of trees. Blennophobia is the fear of slime. And neophobia is the fear of anything new. However, the fear of long words may have the most ironic (and cruelest name).

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. So let’s say you do have this phobia. You’d be terrify to name your ailment. Kind of a conundrum.

Jellyfish evaporate in the sun. They're 98% water!

When jellyfish are in the water, they can be a bit intimidating. Their tentacles can pack a painful electrical shock. However, once they wash up on shore, they are anything but intimidating.

It turns out that jellyfish are 98% water. Most are transparent and bell-shaped. If they end up on the beach, they will most likely evaporate in a few hours and mostly disappear.

Jellyfish also don’t have brains, bones or a heart. They do have rudimentary sensory nerves though.

Those stars and colors you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

Have you ever closed your eyes, rubbed them and seen stars? Or at least little pops of light? It turns out that those pops of light have a name: phosphenes.

They are a phenomenon characterized by seeing light without light actually entering the eye. This rubbing mechanically stimulates the cells of the retina causing this effect. Sometimes, these phosphenes can still be seen for moments after you open your eyes.

Meditators have also reported experiencing phosphenes, and they have actually been known since antiquity. Ancient Greeks described them. Other reasons people ‘see stars’ are because of sneezing, coughing, blowing your nose or receiving a blow to the head.

The total weight of all the ants on Earth is about the same as the weight of all the humans on earth.

Unless you leave food out and attract them, humans rarely have a need to think about ants. They're tiny, not poisonous and not particularly terrifying, like say, spiders. However, they far outnumber humans on earth--by one million to one!

Funnily enough, they are also roughly a millionth of a human in size too. Do the math--the total weight of all the ants on earth matches the total weight of the entire human population.

There are 10,000 different types of ants and they've been around for a long time. Ancients ants have been discovered in fossilized sap from 100 million years ago!

Over time, ants have changed very little. Their way of life and survival is successful. Some scientists attribute this to their unselfish ways. Ants live in colonies and bring their prey back to their many relatives to share.

Grapes EXPLODE when you put them in the microwave!

You may have heard of frozen grapes as a tasty snack, but what about heating grapes in the microwave? You probably shouldn't try this one. It turns out that grapes react very oddly when they're microwaved.

Since grapes are full of moisture, when they are microwaved, that moisture turns to steam. If the stem is still attached to the grape and there is nowhere for the steam to escape, it will explode slightly and rupture the skin.

If you place two grapes close together with their stem holes facing each other, some arcing and sparking will occur. If there is just a single grape with its stem hole open, it will let out a stream of steam. Good thing we don't serve grapes warm.

It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

The film “Titanic” was incredibly successful. It won 11 Academy Awards and launched the careers of its leads, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. In order to make such an epic film, the producers had to spend a lot of money.

Specifically, it cost $200 million. Part of the cost of the film was building a partial replica of the ship itself. The movie actually cost more than the real Titanic.

In 1910-1912 when the Titanic was being built, it cost about $7.5 million. In 1997 dollars, when the movie was made, that would be about $120-$150 million.

Most people are unable to laugh on command.

Laughter is an interesting thing—it’s part of a universal human language that all people understand. It’s such a natural response that we often don’t even realize we’re doing it. People have many different types of chuckles and many different reasons for their laughter.

One thing is common though—most people cannot laugh on command. If they do laugh, it is forced and often inauthentic. It will take a few minutes to come up with an actual laugh. This suggests that we can’t deliberately activate the brain’s mechanisms for affective expression.

If you walk and talk with someone, eventually you will synchronize your steps with each other. 

                         

Interpersonal synchronization of stepping happens when people walk side-by-side. Little is known about this, but it has practical uses in therapy. In 2009, this phenomenon was the subject of a study to help impaired people in rehabilitation. Subjects were paired together to walk on treadmills side-by-side. The result? People started walking faster to keep up with their partners. 

 

As a punishment for misbehavior, Thai cops have to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands. 

                                                

A police chief in Bangkok, Thailand instituted a new policy for Bangkok cops in 2007. They have to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands with hearts on them as punishment for misbehaving. This punishment could be for just about anything: breaking the law, littering, showing up late to work, parking in the wrong place. 

"This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor. Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It's not something macho police officers want covering their biceps.

In early experiments, the unconventional punishment hasn't worked. Instead of feeling shame, the officers just took them home as souvenirs. 

Believe it or not, you actually CAN'T see the Great Wall of China from Space! 

                                                                  

You've probably seen this "fact" a bunch of times (we here at OMG Facts certainly have): 

"The Great Wall of China is the only human-made object that can be seen from outer-space." 

Turns out it's not even true. The first known publishing of this "fact" was back in 1938, long before anyone was traveling in space. Since then lots of people have gone into outer space and looked at the Earth and haven't found the Great Wall. 

The Great Wall is huge (5500 miles long) but in order to be visible from far away it would also have to be very wide and distinct looking from the ground. The Great Wall is very thin. If it were visible from space, every interstate highway would be too! 

On the other hand, you can see the Pyramids of Giza from space. You can also see Minutemaid Park, the Toyota Center, and the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX 

Source OMG-Facts.com

A Trip to Leh-Ladakh

A Nice Trip to Leh-Ladakh


Ladakh is a region of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that lies between the Kunlunmountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Jammu and Kashmir
Ladakh is approximately 500 kms from Manali (Himachal Pradesh) and it is shortest way to reach there.

Top free android applications

Top Android Applications 2013 (Free)

1. EasilyDo Smart Assistant

EasilyDo is a personal assistant app created by EasilyDo Inc. Straight from the EasilyDo application, it allows users to connect to Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. Monitor important emails, receive birthday notification reminders, and the app will warn you when bad weather is on its way. EasilyDo is a must-have app if you’re looking for a personal assistant. You can download EasilyDo Smart Assistant from the Google Play Store here.

2. BBC Weather

The BBC Weather application has arrived on Android, and it's become one of the best weather apps for those who are living in or visiting the United Kingdom. Although it targets the UK, it can also work with international locations. Scroll sideways to see hourly weather conditions. The app also predicts wind speed and covers a five-day forecast. View sunrise and sunset times along with information on pollen and pollution information for the UK. BBC Weather app has a simple and clear design and is detailed with up-to-date information. You can download BBC Weather from the Google Play Store  here.

3. Gmail (UPDATE)

Google released a new update for the Gmail app on Android smartphones. Version 2.3.5 has a ton of new features and performances improvements. The new update will help users manage and organize their inbox with “tabs.” Gmail’s new tab system will have five different categories including Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. Users will also receive notifications when new mail arrives, read and respond to conversations, and manage multiple email accounts. You can download Gmail from the Google Play Store here.

4. Flipboard

Flipboard, the popular, excellent social reading app made famous on the iOS platform, has finally arrived on Android smartphones, losing very little in translation. Flipboard aggregates Web content, from news clips to videos, in a clean, gorgeous magazine-style layout.

5. Google Maps

Google Maps has long helped people navigate streets, landmarks, parks, and other outdoor locations all over the world. In November, Google added an indoor navigation feature that helps you confidently trespass airports, shopping malls, and other large buildings.

6. Google Translate

Google Translate translates words into over 64 languages, and dictates them aloud. It's fast and stable, and works well for quick translations of a few words or a single sentence. However it requires a constant Internet connection.

7. Dropbox

The original cloud storage service, Dropbox has a clean, sleek Android app that rivals the iPhone version in terms of style. Dropbox's terms are pretty well known: the free version will allow you to have up to 2GB of files seamless synched between devices and stored online. The app puts all those files at your fingertips, easily allowing you to view, download, and share what you need when you need it

8. GO SMS Pro

Go SMS Pro is the SMS/MMS app for power Android users. You can send "short" messages containing text, voice, doodles, and photos. There's a lot of room for tinkerers to customize themes, messages, and folders for storage.

9. ooVoo Video Calls

Stable and reliable video chat apps for Android aren't easy to come by, but ooVoo is terrific. The Android video chat app supports group video, voice calls, and instant messaging—across iOS, OSX, Android, and Windows! Not only do you get solid Android video calling, but you can practically video chat with anyone.

10. Pinterest

Social corkboard site Pinterest landed on Android and iOS devices this month, so you can access your account on the go. For the uninitiated, Pinterest is another popular network of ways to discover, collect, and share "beautiful things you find on the Web."