Sri Lanka, Dalada Maligawa, Kandy

Kandy is a beautiful city in Sri Lanka. On a small hill is a great temple which was especially built to house a relic of the Buddha - his tooth. The tooth can never be seen, as it is kept deep inside may caskets. But once a year in August, on the night of the full moon, there is a special procession for it. But other festivities occur on ten days leading to that final ...

Gambia, Banjul

The International Roots festival is held annually in Banjul and other towns. It commemorates the enslavement of Africans who were captured and shipped to the Americas as a part of the transatlantic slave trade. This festival gives Africans and people from the African Diaspora the opportunity to learn more about their heritage as they delve into the culture and history of the Continent. Festival attendees can visit many of the nearby historical sites, including Alex Haley's ancestral ...

China, Beijing

The Ghost Festival is said to be the time when ghosts roam the world every year. In some areas of China, visitors can see small roadside fires, where believers burn paper money and other offerings to appease the restless spirits, who have temporarily been released from Hell. The Ghost Festival is also called Half July (Lunar). It is a popular occasion celebrated throughout China on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. The Ghost Festival is ...

Germany, Munich, Theresienwiese

Many special trains of the German Federal Railway bring in visitors from Germany's main towns and also from abroad. Thousands of coaches run special trips to the 'Wies`n', to give the Oktoberfest in Munich its traditional popular name. When the Oktoberfest opens in Munich, all the brewers and publicans march in procession through the town accompanied by gaily decked carts and brewers' drays, drawn by teams of hefty dray horses. No motorised vehicles are tolerated in ...

United Kingdom, Edinburgh, Calton Hill

Edinburgh's Beltane festival originates in the Scottish and Irish Gaelic pre-Christian festival of the same name. The name itself is thought to have derived from a Gaelic-Celtic word meaning 'bright/sacred fire'. It was held to mark and celebrate the blossoming of spring, and coincided with the ancient pastoral event of moving livestock to their summer grazing. It did not occur on any fixed solar date (the tradition of solstices and equinoxes is later in origin) but ...

French Polynesia, To'ata Sq, Papeete, Tahiti

The largest annual cultural festival in Tahiti taking place at beautiful To'ata Square in Papeete. Events over this period are sumptuous and are characterized by heated contests between the best artistic groups with singing, dancing and their costumes, not to mention the sports contest of canoe racing, fruit bearing, javelin throwing, copra preparation, stone lifting and weaving etc. ...

United States of America, Sedona, Arizona

The first annual Festival of Native American Culture will be held from June 5 through 13, 2009 in Sedona, Arizona. The Festival is designed to encourage a greater understanding of our land's indigenous peoples, and to preserve their cultural heritage in the Verde Valley. The Festival, in association with the Sedona International Film Festival, begins with a Native American Film Festival featuring documentaries, fiction and music videos by Native American filmmakers. The Yavapai-Apache Nation will be showing ...

Nepal, Kathmandu

During the month of Kartik (late September and early October), the Nepalese people indulge in the biggest festival of the year, Dashain. Dashain is the longest and the most auspicious festival in the Nepalese annual calendar, celebrated by Nepalese of all caste and creed throughout the country. The fifteen days of celebration occurs during the bright lunar fortnight ending on the day of the full moon. Thorough out the kingdom of Nepal the goddess Durga ...

Italy, Venecia

Turkey, Konya

The Commemorative Ceremony for Mevlana, the great Sufic saint (1207-1273), is one of the world\'s greatest spectacles. More than a million people descend on Konya, the ancient Seljuk capital, for the festival of the Whirling Dervishes. At the Mausoleum of Mevlana in Konya, mystical ceremonial dances are performed in honour of the great teacher and thinker. Mevlana (which in Arabic means "Our Lord") taught the preeminence of complete tolerance, positive thinking and awareness of God through ...