The Street Parade is the second most attended technoparade in Europe. It takes place in Zurich, Switzerland. Comparable to Berlin's Love Parade, the Street Parade is as of 2004 one of the largest techno parties in the world and the largest annual event in Zurich. Proceeding along the side of Lake Zurich, it normally occurs on the second Saturday in August.
When: August or September Where: Black Rock City, Nevada
Nevada's Burning Man Festival: It's an epiphany. It's primal. It's newborn. But what is it?
Hurtling down the road to the Black Rock Desert, the colors paint themselves like a spice cabinet — sage, dust, slate gray. Maybe you're in your trusty car, the one that takes you to and from work every day. Perhaps you've got a spacious RV, your Motel 6 on wheels for the next days in the desert. Or you're driving your glittering art car, complete with poker chips and mirroring to do a disco ball proud
Carnival is Rio's main event. It happens at the peak of summer, when Cariocas are at their best. Festivities attract thousands of people from all corners of the world. Carnaval, as spelled in Portuguese, is a 4-day celebration. It starts on Saturday, and ends on Fat Tuesday, or Mardi-Gras. Carnival Sunday is seven weeks before Easter Sunday. Dates change every year. This is sex and samba on a stick.
El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), a Mexican celebration, is a day to celebrate, remember and prepare special foods in honor of those who have departed. On this day in Mexico, the streets near the cemeteries are filled with decorations of papel picado , flowers, candy calaveras (skeletons and skulls), and parades.
Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in New Orleans, Louisiana, is one of the most famous Carnival celebrations in the world.
The New Orleans Carnival season, with roots in preparing for the start of the Catholic season of Lent, starts on Twelfth Night (January 6). It is a season of parades, balls (some of them masquerade balls), and king cake parties. It has traditionally been part of the winter social season, at one time closely related to "coming out" parties for young women at débutante balls.
When: last Wednesday in August Where: Bunol, Spain
La Tomatina festival in Spain gives new meaning to the expression 'playing with your food'. For most of the year Bunol is a ho-hum industrial town, 40km (25mi) from Valencia, quietly going about its own business. But come the last Wednesday of August, the town's streets turns into a salsa riot, with over 20,000 revellers pelting each other with large, red, squishy tomatoes.
The Noche de Rábanos celebration takes place annually on December 23 in the zócalo of the city of Oaxaca. Special large radishes are grown especially for the celebration. They are an elongated variety up to 2 feet in length and weighing as much as 10 pounds. These are carved and used to create religous or cultural figures and scenes. Many are quite intricate and ornate. Some are just whimsical.
One of the biggest festivals of Hindus, Deepawali or Diwali in India is celebrated with lots of enthusiasm and happiness. This festival is celebrated for five continuous days, with the third day being celebrated as the main Diwali or as 'Festival of Lights'. Fireworks are always associated with this festival. The day is celebrated with people lighting diyas, candles all around their house. Lakshmi Puja is performed in the evening to seek divine blessings of Goddess of Wealth. Diwali gifts are exchanged among all near and dear ones.
The Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, Japan in spring. The exact dates vary: the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April. The penis forms the central theme of the event that is reflected everywhere—in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decorations, and a mikoshi parade.
The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It is said that there are divine protections also in business prosperity and the clan's prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony. There is also a legend of a sharp-toothed demon that hid inside the vagina of a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights with the young girl before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus to break the demon's teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.
Today, the festival has become somewhat of a tourist attraction and is used to raise money for HIV research
During Holly Week, Antigua Guatemala hosts the most beautiful religious celebration in the America, when huge processions wind their way through the town’s streets. Actually, the celebration begins on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and reaches its climax on Good Friday, when Antigua streets are thronged with processions and reverent spectator. The processions consist of big floats, or 'andas', bearing statues of Christ with a cross, that are carried by hundreds of purple-robed men.
A float with the Virgin Mary Follows by women dressed in black clothing. The processions move slowly through. Antigua cobblestone streets, the feet of the bearers cushioned in the sawdust carpets, which are destroyed as the procession passes over. Visiting Antigua during lent and Holly Week means an extraordinary spiritual rewarding experience which you will never forget.
Antigua Guatemala is famous for its spectacular and elaborate religious festivities during Easter Week (Holy Week - Semana Santa). But lets not forget the Carpets tradition (Alfombras de Acerrin), national and international visitors crowd streets not just to see the processions, but also to participate in the detalied elaboration of these colorful carpets to adorn the processional route.
Parties
Hurtling down the road to the Black Rock Desert, the colors paint themselves like a spice cabinet — sage, dust, slate gray. Maybe you're in your trusty car, the one that takes you to and from work every day. Perhaps you've got a spacious RV, your Motel 6 on wheels for the next days in the desert. Or you're driving your glittering art car, complete with poker chips and mirroring to do a disco ball proud
Carnival is Rio's main event. It happens at the peak of summer, when Cariocas are at their best. Festivities attract thousands of people from all corners of the world. Carnaval, as spelled in Portuguese, is a 4-day celebration. It starts on Saturday, and ends on Fat Tuesday, or Mardi-Gras. Carnival Sunday is seven weeks before Easter Sunday. Dates change every year. This is sex and samba on a stick.