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