The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!
Whether you live in a small town or a big city, festivals are usually one of the highlights of the year! Sometimes people gather to celebrate traditional crafts, special seasons, historical events or even religious festivities that are important to the community. What do the people in your region commemorate?
One festival that always makes our town buzz with excitement is the Mediterranean Diet Fair, in mid-September. Tavira is a representative community of this UNESCO recognized form of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and as such, every year a big party is thrown to showcase and celebrate it.
There are a lot of shows and workshops around the theme of the Mediterranean diet, which is not just about the food itself, but also encompasses all cultural aspects that go with. From music to performative arts, markets and seed banks, visits to cultural heritage sites, workshops, or activities for the little ones… there’s always something going on during the days over which the event takes place, so it’s definitely worth a visit!
What about your region? Which festivals are you looking forward to this year? Let’s write about these special events on the postcards we send out in March!
34 comments so far
The Galway International Arts Festival is always a great festival.
This year Galway is a host for European City of Culture.
Rock Werchter Belgium - July !
I have only been to this once, but there is an art festival that is about an hour's drive away from our area. It's called the Mount Gretna Art Festival. There are tons of outdoor booths that sell paintings, beads, and other wonderous artsy things things.
I knew that the Mediterranean Diet is considered to be the healthiest (my own doctor advised me to go on it to lose weight), but I did not know that it has its own festival. Interesting! I learn new things from Postcrossing and its members nearly every day.
In Lubbock, Texas, where I live, Buddy Holly's birthday is celebrated in early September. Around that same time, there is an annual event called The Cowboy Symposium. But the major celebrations here happen whenever Texas Tech wins a big game. People here went crazy when the Tech men's basketball team was in the championships last year!
In Minnesota (located in northern USA) "Polar Plunges" are popular to celebrate a variety of things throughout the winter. Dress in costumes, cut a hole in the ice, jump in and exit quickly! I personally DO NOT recommend this!!! BURRRRR!
Coming soon to my area is the Maple Syrup Festival - yummy!
Durga Pooja is the most important festival of Orissa which is magnificently celebrated all over the state of Orissa. It is celebrated in the month of September/October.
Holi : The festival of Colours is usually celebrated in March, While
Diwali : Festival of Lights is usually celebrated in the month of October/November.
Coming up on March Ski & Music Festival on top of Kronplatz (skiing resort in north Italy) also James Morrison will be there on main stage giving a concert for free. Looking forward to it :) :)
Here in Alamo, Texas, a city on the border of Mexico with the Rio Grande separating us, we have a Watermelon Festival with all the City involved in its production. Along with a Parade, a Barbecue contest, many local charitable groups have booths. The Museum is open with games for children and tours of the museum.. Oh! and there is plenty of free watermelon for everyone to enjoy.
Sabantuy is the most fun holiday in Tatarstan.
The word "sabantuy" comes from the Turkic tokens "saban" - a plow and "thuj" - a holiday. It is celebrated in June in honor of the completion of spring sowing. This event is national and beloved; both children and adults take part in its celebration. Sabantuy is celebrated every year. It was not carried out only when there were wars or there were difficult times for the people. It is a celebration of labor, health, strength and dexterity. It has its own customs, ceremonies, usually consists of various sports and playful competitions, accompanied by numerous songs and dances. On this day, festivities take place, and most importantly - a large family feast in nature.
This holiday is protected by UNESCO as a masterpiece of the oral heritage of mankind, because it is a real gem of national unity and friendship.
Thank you for sharing these! I'm enjoying learning about all these different festivals around the world :)
In July we celebrate a medieval children's festival here in Kaufbeuren.
It is called Tänzelfest and is said goodbye after two weeks with big fireworks.
In July we have the Tilburg Kermis. This is the largest fair in the Benelux nations offering between 230 and 250 attractions every year. It's also unique in that the whole city centre is closed off to accommodate it creating a fairground 4.5km long.
In our region the International festival of cinematic debuts "Spirit of Fire" is held in March.
I live in Bad Nauheim, a small spa town with hot mineral springs and many Buildings in "Art Nouveau Style", not far from Frankfurt am Main.
The most popular festival takes place every year in August:
European Elvis Festival
The next European Elvis Festival will take place from August 14th to 16th, 2020.
Who wouldn't want to travel back in time to the time Elvis lived? Once a year, around the time of his death on August 16, the tranquil spa town is transformed into a sea of Cadillacs, Petticoats and Elvis olls. The rock 'n' roll becomes the lifestyle and sound of the whole city.
With numerous events, well-known artists, tours with anecdotes about the locations in Elvis ’“ European Home ”and of course a lot of live music, the weekend will be a unique experience. Every year guests come from all over the world to celebrate their idol together. The festival, which has existed since 2002, is not just something for fans of the King. The special spirit invites young and old to an entertaining visit. Discover Elvis ’“ European Home ”and celebrate the King of Rock’ n ’Roll with guests from all over the world!
(On October 1, 1958, the King of Rock 'n' Roll arrived at the US barracks in Barracks in Friedberg to perform his military service in Germany.
"So much noise about this howling dervish," writes the local press. A few days after Presley's arrival, his father Vernon, his grandmother Minnie Mae and the two bodyguards Red West and Lamar Fike follow. As a place of residence you choose the neighboring Bad Nauheim and reside there first in the Park Hotel. But after only five days, the "clan" moves on to Hotel Grunewald on Terrassenstrasse, near the Kurhaus. Elvis lived in room 10 there until 3.2.1959. Then the family rented the private house at Goethestrasse 14, where everyone stayed until the end of their stay.
On March 2nd, 1960 Elvis Presley left Bad Nauheim.)
Namaste From India.
In my region (Gujarat) during this season many of the Trible fairs take place. One of them is KAVANT FAIR.
Kavant is a harvest festival celebrated with wild abandon through dance primordial blending the rhythm with the shashaying of the forest and the frolicking of the animals in the undergrowth. Surrounded by the beating of drums, the susurrations of a variety of flutes and the stamping of feet, the Rathvas dance in a vast group keeping time to the rise and fall of the crescendo of arrhythmic music in their tryst with destiny. The men folk wear a belt attached with pebble filled gourds and a string of brass bells. As they stamp their feet and gyrate their hips the bells and the pebbled gourds add percussion metronomical beats tintinabulating in the air. Some of the men carry cane sugar signifying the harvest and wear an elaborate headgear which is a conical hat stuck with small framed photos of local deities surrounded by an array of peacock feathers. Rice paste and ash are blended to make a dye painting the bodies with circles and dots in a ritualistic salutation to the jungle cat. Some men and women gather together to form a human pyramid and the surrounding atmosphere rides with the heightened energy and human spirit.
You can see Photographs of Kavant fair on Wikipedia commons uploaded by me.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kavant_Fair
Hope you like it.
(Vijay Barot)
В августе в небольшом городке Соль-Илецке проходит арбузный фестиваль! Самые вкусные арбузы выращивают здесь!
In my town we have three festivals of several kinds. They all are for free.
End of june there is 'Grensrock', a pleasant way to start summer.
In july there is 'Salto' a street theater festival full of acts and music performances. In septembre there are the 'Wieltjesfeesten' with a lot of activities as an art street and music for young and old on the marketplace.
One of the famous festival in our city is the Taste Of Buffalo. It is a show of foods from different restaurants to taste. I liked this festival, you get your tummy full.
Every April for two weekends in the Palm Springs, California, area is the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. EVERYONE has played that fest, and I went to every one from 1999-2015 (been off and on since). This year it's Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean headlining.
great>>>
I enjoy living in a small city along the German wine route, between the vineyards and the beautiful Palatinate forest. Here, where the vines squeeze up on the gentle hills overlooking the Rhine Plain, many wine festivals bear witness to the deep-rootedness of the wine culture. All the main streets of the villages are called Weinstraße (wine street). Everywhere, you can taste wines at the winemaker's and savour the local cuisine in typical inns.
The region is marked by numerous open-air wine festivals. The largest wine festival worldwide is the Wurstmarkt (sausage market) in front of the world's largest wine barrel (1 700 000 litres) in Bad Dürkheim. Unlike with festivals in other German wine regions, wine is served in 50 cl glasses rather than the typical 25 cl ones. They are of a special shape specific to the Palatinate wine region and are known as the “Dubbeglas”, widening from bottom to top and featuring indentations or large dimples (called “dubbe”) that give the glass its name.
Wurstmarkt? What’s a Wurstmarkt?
With more than 685,000 visitors travelling from all continents to the Palatinate (we say "Pfalz"), the Bad Dürkheim’s Wurstmarkt is the largest Wine & Sausage Festival in the world.
Bad Dürkheim is to wine, what Munich is to beer. It’s one of the largest, most traditional and entertaining public festivals in Germany. It is over 570 years old, and still as young as ever – the Bad Dürkheim festival of festivals – the main event of the year in the Pfalz. The entertainment along with the wine is one of the distinctive features of the festival. You can enjoy over 150 different wines in over 50 different places – from the mellow Riesling to the finest ice-wine. Whether in the large wine halls or at the traditional “Schubkärchler” – small traditional wine stands with scrubbed wooden tables worn smooth over the years – the Dürkheim wine loses none of its flavour wherever you drink it. Or if you prefer to enjoy a fine wine in a more tranquil and intimate atmosphere, the Weindorf – the wine village – is the place for you.
Although the Dürkheim wine is the centre of attraction, the Wurstmarkt would be unthinkable without its travelling fairground – fun for the whole family. Another typical attraction of the Wurstmarkt is the dialect and the humour of the local people. The combination of wine and literature offered on the first Monday of the Wurstmarkt is highly recommended.
Tradition and wine – two things which best express the affection for the Pfalz felt by its natives.
As the local poet Karl Räder said:
“The Wurstmarkt is the only festival where you meet old friends you’ve never seen before”
Every year at Pentecost, the Wave Gothic meeting is here in Leipzig. It is the world's largest meeting of the "black scene". The festival lasts for 4 days and about 20,000 people come from all over the world. There are many great concerts, opera performances, medieval markets, readings, etc.
There a a lot of festivals around music in Paris:
some of them:
Villette Sonique (underground musics) in spring
Paris Jazz Festival
Rock en Seine, a rock festival near Paris, in Saint Cloud park late august
Solidays: to help against aids
and others
Festival for communities:
New Year for the Chinese community for eg.
There are some events about food too, especially new practices: eating local, etc. Some are organised for a week, including pupils, with various events on various places (a lot of events in fact take place in various places on the same theme, food or not).
But the biggest festivals in France are in province.
Here in Paris we have more shows, fairs, professional or open to anyone.They take place all year long in dedicated areas : parc des expositions especially.
Hi, the festival where I go every year in our town, Victoria in BC, Canada is called; 'Victoria Symphony Splash". It's a classical outdoor festival and it always break every year the number of visitors. It's in August, mostly with nice hot weather. I enjoy every second + the finale with fireworks. It's a FREE concert. Cheers, Anneke
Big Book Festival - The Big Reading Festival is the largest international festival of literature taking place in Warsaw and the only one in Poland created independently by a non-governmental organization.
The best festival for school graduates is the Scarlet Sails in St. Petersburg!
Speaking about March, we have got 2 major festivals coming up. One is the festival of colours ie. Holi. On the day, we play with coloured powders and apply that to each other. We also worship the goddess called Holika wherein there is a ritual to burn all the wrong-doings of the past and begin life anew.
Another festival that I am looking forward to is Gudi Padwa, this is celebrated only in the state of Maharashtra by the natives of this state. it is the new year for us. We dress up and make a sweet delicacy called Puran Poli made from wheat flour and jaggery.
My city cherishes November as a special month because our residents in 1945 tried to fight to claim their independence with people around Indonesia. Surabaya Juang Parade is a yearly festival, gives glimpses on how brave the Surabaya people tried to claim Indonesia's independence and making Indonesia flag at the top of Yamato Hotel (now known as Majapahit). The parade itself is live colossal drama hold in public road in front of the Majapahit Hotel and continued by a parade of the old memory of November 10.
MY FAVORITES ARE Happy Postcrossing US, THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, AND BEETHOVEN'S 250 YEARS.
THIS IS SO FUN!
In March in Kazakhstan it's all about Nauryz celebration. Lots of national Kazakh food, games and concerts, all that jazz, you know? But this year, I don't know if celebrations will be held due to the coronavirus. But probably there will be people anyway.
Oh, also in spring, in May The Victory Day is celebrated, on the 9th of May. As Kazakhstan is a part of CIS region, used to be Kazakhstan SSR back in the day. :) But the small festivals, I gotta check the information out, so I will probably write down more later.
Okay, I remembered that Apple Festival is held in Almaty city in September, every year. Because of the apple harvest time and because Almaty city has been named after apple in Kazakh language (alma = apple). People eat lots of apples and yes, apples are everywhere. Also we celebrate day of the City of Almaty in September, I think in early days of the month.
all celebrations, festivals and everything with more then 3 persons are skipped or forbidden because of the coronavirus. So postcrossing is safe and a pleasure!
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