By Beth Green
At the end of
every year I like to think back on the travel I enjoyed over the previous
twelve months and make some general plans for where I’d like to go and what I’d
like to see in the next calendar cycle.
Sinulog. Photo by Sidious Sid/Flickr.com |
Twenty-twelve
was a year of near misses for me in the festivals department. I was lucky
enough to visit seven countries this year, but poor planning on my part had me losing
out on good music, great photo ops and interesting cultural insights I would
have experienced if I had been more diligent about checking holiday and
festival calendars for my destinations. So, perhaps that’s one reason that I’m
so excited about Sinulog, the religious street dancing festival held in Cebu
City, Philippines, every January.
The Sinulog
dance pre-dates Christianity in the Philippines; however, converts in Cebu
began using the dance to honor the local miracle—the discovery in a burning
home of an unburnt image of the baby Jesus 44 years after Magellan brought it
here. The same ritual dance has been done for centuries with an added tradition
of dressing in costumes to perform it on the festival day of Santo Nino
(Jesus). In the 1980s a formal parade was organized, and the event has
blossomed into an internationally recognized street festival lasting more than
a week.
Sinulog. Photo by Sidious Sid/Flickr.com |
In addition
to the dancing, among other events, this year’s schedule has choral
competitions, a beauty pageant and a parade of giant puppets. I’m also looking
forward to the fluvial parade, when flower-bedecked boats navigate the channel
between Cebu City and Mactan Island bearing images of the Santo Nino (Read my
post on the history of Lapu-Lapu here).
But Sinulog
isn’t the only festival I’m hoping to attend this year. With a little
searching, I’ve found interesting festivals in Asia for every month of the year
ahead. Will I have a chance to attend them all? Probably not. But I do hope to
make one or two. Which ones would you most want to go to?
Asian
Festivals for 2013
January—Sinulog.
Events begin before the third Sunday in January. (Jan. 20 this year). The
festival’s motto is “one beat, one dance, one vision."
A Spring Festival street market. Photo by Beth Green |
February—Spring Festival. Celebrated in slightly different ways in China, Taiwan, Japan, the
Koreas, Vietnam and elsewhere, the lunar new year—or Spring Festival—celebrates
the coming of spring and the end of winter darkness with lights, feasting and
togetherness. This year, the Year of the Water Snake will begin on Feb. 10.
March—Holi.
Another festival marking the beginning of spring, Holi is a Hindu festival
celebrated mostly in India and Nepal but also in Indian communities in Malaysia
and Singapore. The most famous—and fun! —part of this ancient celebration is
the tossing of powdered dyes. This year, Holi falls on March 27.
April—Songkran.
The Thai new year doesn’t begin until Songran, the Water Splashing Festival.
Held between April 13-15, people celebrating Songkran—and the end of the dry
season—bless each other with splashes of water, and visit their families to pay
respect to their elders. The water washes away bad luck and opens the
floodgates of second chances.
May—Wesak.
May 27th, 2013 is Wesak, or Buddha’s Birthday (called so even though it
actually commemorates the Gautama’s birth, enlightenment and death). Celebrated
throughout Asia, Buddhist devotees bring offerings to temples, set captive
animals free, and make donations to charities and the poor. It is a national
holiday in Malaysia, even though Islam is the state religion.
A Holi celebration in Jaipur, India. Photo by Dan Pelka |
June—Dragon Boat Festival. June 12, 2013 is when the Chinese will remember the poet Qu
Yuan, who filled his pockets with stones and threw himself from a bridge after
he was captured in exile. Nowadays on Dragon Boat Festival, people throw
glutinous rice packets in rivers to entice the fish to eat the rice instead of
the body of the fallen poet. (No fools, people eat the yummy packets, called
zong zi, too.) The Dragon Boats which are raced represent the nine children of
the Dragon King who raced to save the beloved poet (some versions of this story
say the boats represent the villagers only; I like the dragon kids better).
July—Nadaam.
Every midsummer, Mongolian athletes hope for strength and luck while
participating in Nadaam, a competition of wrestling, horseback riding and
archery. It is held in Ulaanbataar on July 11-13 every year, and, though an
ancient tradition, now commemorates the 1921 revolution.
Boryeong Mud Festival.
For a quite different type of festival, I’m intrigued by Korea’s Boryeong Mud
Festival, also held in July. (July 19-28 in 2013). Festival-goers enjoy the
world’s most natural spa treatments by mud bathing, mud sliding and getting mud
massages.
Nadaam. Photo by Julie Laurent/Flickr.com |
August—Litang Horse Festival. August is a sleepy month for festivals in Asia, but back in
China they always hold the Litang Horse Festival in Sichuan province from Aug.
1-7. Celebrated by the nomadic Tibetan Khampas tribes, it started as a
religious festival for monks and has evolved into a chance to do trade as well
as compete in horsemanship.
September—Tet Trung Thu. This Sept. 19 sees Vietnam’s Tet Trung Thu, the country’s second
biggest holiday. In China, the same date on the lunar calendar is called
Mid-Autumn Festival. In both countries people have a family gathering, give
thanks for their good luck, and pray. In Vietnam, it’s sometimes also called
the Children’s Festival, and youngsters wear masks while carrying lanterns in
parades.
October—Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. I couldn't resist looking at the various
literary and arts festivals also happening in Asia. For example, I’d love to go
to the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. Not only
is the destination alone worth the trip, the festival celebrates storytelling
in contemporary literature from around the world. This year it will be held on
Oct. 2-6.
Bali. Photo by Beth Green |
November—Loi Krathong. Celebrated in Thailand, Laos and parts of Burma, Loi Krathong (Nov.
17, 2013) is a chance for people to get rid of bad energy and send their
prayers and wishes to the water spirits via floating offerings. Participants
launch their “krathong” on water on the full moon. These offerings are folded
out of leaves or made from bread and decorated with flowers, incense and a
candle.
December—Dongzhi Festival. As you’ll have noticed, many Asian festivals revolve around the
changing of the season. So it’s no surprise that in China the beginning of
winter is celebrated too. On Dec. 21, on Dongzhi Festival, Chinese people have
different ways to celebrate. In one place I lived, local tradition held that
you had to eat dog meat on Dec. 21 so you wouldn’t be cold the rest of the
year. A friend from a different part of China shared that his family always
made ear-shaped dumplings, to make sure their earlobes wouldn’t get frostbitten
in the coming months.
Wow, Beth. What an imposing lists of possibilities. Enjoy.
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