People play at the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province on Dec 23, 2012. PHOTO THANKS TO HKCH At Harbin, in China, in 1985 a simple Ice and Snow Festival was started. lt is now the biggest winter attraction in China and one of the world's largest ice and snow festivals.Harbin is the largest of all the capitals in China and is located in northern Manchuria just across the border from Russian Siberia. Thousands of exquisitely made ice lanterns, ice carvings and snow sculptures grace the snow-covered parks, public squares and major streets, turning the city into a dreamlike world of pure whiteness and gleaming crystal. These ice and snow art works can be as small as a mouse or as big as a bus. The designs range from life-size human figures, animals and flowers to towering castles, delicate pagodas and many other ingenious creations. Ice sculptures, made from blocks of ice chain-sawed from the Songhua River, have represented such things as the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower and an onion-domed Russian church. These sculptures fill the city square and glow from the neon tubes of purple, pink, blue and green that shine from inside.
In the evenings, the sculptures are lit up and people tour the parks with ice lanterns to view them. Other events take place in the city at the same time as the festival including fireworks, winter swimming, skiing, speed skating, football on the snow and the ice and snow film festival. SOURCE: Inspiration Line and Good News Network
Agni is the Hindu god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. He is present in many traditional Hindu ceremonies such as the honouring of a birth (diva lamp), birthdays (birthday candles), prayers (diva lamp), weddings (Yagna) and death (cremation).
The Hindu wedding ceremony is in essence a fire-sacrifice and no Hindu marriage is considered complete unless in the presence of the Sacred Fire. This has a deep origin in the ancient ceremony of cementing the bonds of friendship and alliance. A Hindu wedding incorporates many of the timeless rituals and customs from the Vedic period.
The Saptapadi सप्तपदी is the most important component of Hindu weddings. Sapta means seven and padi means steps in Sanskrit and the Saptapadi is a ceremony where seven encirclements of the Holy Fire by the bride and the groom together. This symbol of Agni is witness to the vows they make each other. Walking around the fire together, the most important part of the ceremony, they say a vow with each step to each other for this life long union.
The vows are about sharing, strength, wealth, health, happiness, children, comfort and friendship. During the pheras or steps, the Gods are invoked to shower blessings on the bride and the groom. It is believed that when a married couple takes seven pheras together, their married life will be happy for a long time. You can read and download the vows here.
In every region of India their are small differences such as which partner walks first and which hand is held but always there are circles around the Holy Fire.
In North India, the first six circuits are led by the bride, and the final one by the groom.
In Central India, the bride leads the first three or four circuits.
In some areas of Western India, only four steps,
signifying Artha (prosperity) Dharma (righteousness) Kama (energy) and Moksha (detachment).
With each circuit, the couple makes a specific vow:
In South Indian weddings, after each saying a mantra at each of the seven steps, the couple say these words together:
"Now let us make a vow together. We shall share love, share the same food, share our strengths, share the same tastes. We shall be of one mind, we shall observe the vows together..."
In North Indian weddings, the bride and the groom say the following words after completing the seven steps:
"We have taken the Seven Steps. You have become mine forever. Yes, we have become partners. I have become yours. Hereafter, I cannot live without you. Do not live without me. Let us share the joys. We are word and meaning, united. You are thought and I am sound. May the night be honey-sweet for us. May the morning be honey-sweet for us..."
After the completion of the seven steps ceremony, the couple sit down with the wife now on the left side of her husband. Now the couple are husband and wife. The husband garlands the wife and the wife garlands her husband.
RESOURCES: Mythology, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Principal Myths and Religions of the World by Richard Cavendish. A South Indian Wedding – The Rituals and the Rationale by Padma Vaidyanath
Detail of a ceiling mosaic - Christus helios, the mosaic of Sol in Mausoleum M, the Mausoleum of the Julii, Pope Julius I. From the necropolis under St. Peter's Cathedral, Mid-3rd century Grotte Vaticane, Rome. This is thought to be a representation of Christ as the sun-god Helios riding in his chariot. Dated to the 3rd century AD.
Early Christian and pagan beliefs are combined in this third century mosaic of Christ as a sun-god.
"It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day." Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen 1997 Sol Invictus, which translates to Unconquered Sun, was the sun god of the late Roman Empire and a patron of the Roman soldiers. Comparing Christ with the Sun is common in ancient Christian writings.In the 5th century, Pope Leo I gave sermons on the Feast of the Nativity of how the celebration of Christ's birth coincided with increase of the sun's position in the sky e.g. "But this Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery.
Lath mar Holi being played in Barsana, Uttar Pradesh
Holi celebrations in India
One of the first Holi Festivals - Krishna, Radha and Gopis
The colourful festival of Holi is celebrated on Phalgun Purnima in late February or early March. Phalgun Purnima marks the birth of the Goddess Lakshmi who is the Hindu Goddess of wealth and prosperity. So, Phalguna Purnima is special to Hindus. Holi's ancient origins joyously celebrate the triumph of good over evil. Hindus believe it is a welcoming of spring's abundant colours and a farewell to winter. It also has a religious purpose, commemorating events in Hindu legend.
This colourful festival also celebrates the eternal love of Radha and Krishna. This festival is celebrated in a grand style in the city of Mathura and Vrindavan. These are two important cities which are deeply associated to Lord Krishna.
The festival of colours teaches humankind to transcend above the caste and creed. It is a festival to forget old grievances and meeting others with great warmth & high spirit. This festival begins with lightening of bonfire on Holi eve. Next day, people play Holi with different types of colours, abirs and gulals. They greet each other with Shubh Holi i.e. Happy Holi and send warm wishes of the festival. HOLI FESTVAL ORG
Holi is mainly celebrated in India and Nepal and to a lesser degree by Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mauritius, and Fiji. Go to the calendar find out when Holi is celebrated this year.
The Hokitika Wild Food Festival is an annual event held in the town of Hokitika, New Zealand. The main attraction of this giant party are the food stalls offering wild and unusual foods such as Huhu grubs, sea gull eggs, earthworms, possum and raw and cooked crunchy scorpions.
The first festival in 1990 attracted a crowd of 1,800 and this year’s saw 15,000 people enjoying the weird and wonderful food.
"Roving entertainment, mingling amongst the crowd, and continuous stage performances enliven the Festival arena with bands, solo artists, mime, comedy, dancers and much, MUCH more to keep you rocking throughout the day and night." Hokitika Wild Food Festival website.
Hokitika is also famous for greenstone (jade) and it's gorge.
Next Wildfoods Festival is the 24th one held and is on Saturday 9th March 2013
The Vivid festival sadly finishes tonight and we must say goodbye, for another year, to the lights that have lit up the city of Sydney in amazing ways. Australia's major international lighting festival had
over 40 brilliant light installations in a free outdoor exhibition where children and adults were encouraged to climb on interactive sculptures such as the giant laser pencil which drew on a wall and the Moore Park stairs where you created your own rainbow by playing hopscotch up and down.
Vivid made Sydney seem extra special for a little while, in the middle of winter, and brought thousands of people to the city at night that would normally be staying at home.
Thank you Vivid.
Interactive painting on MCA exterior interprets your body movements to create colourful splashes and drips made by you. Interactive Paint Projection by Spinifex Group.
Positive Attracts by Edwin Cheong
Life size statues of rainbow light have Infra Red sensors to detect when you are in close range and trigger their LED lighting effect.
Keep Austin Weird Festival is a celebration of the people, places and businesses that make Austin a vibrant, eclectic and progressive creative center. This June there will be one blowout party full of music, tons of fun family activities, weird, wacky costumes and local vendors eager to reflect the creative nature of Austin, Texas.
Bring your creative side, your appreciation for the great city of Austin and a desire to have fun.
This town is a bookworms delight having over 30 bookshops including the only bookshop in the UK devoted entirely to poetry. The town has an estimated one million books available to purchase.
We visited Hay on Wye in the 1980's and were so fascinated with all the secondhand and antiquarian books we stayed the night. It was on our journey from London to Caernarvon Castle in Wales in our rented Citroën 2CV. We loved the quiet town and wandered around all the bookstores. Back in those days there was not much night life, now there are many pubs, inns and restaurants.
Other wonderful and weird facts:
- The Hay Festival of Literature runs from 26th May 2011 to 5th June 2011 and has been called the Woodstock of the mind.
- Hay on Wye celebrates with an Arts Festival in November (this year from the 19th to the 21st of November.)
- The town is considered to be in Wales but is partly in England.
- The B & B we stayed in had nylon sheets and did not allow us to have a bath as it was not "bath night"!
- Caernarvon Castle in Wales is connected with Merlin but that is a whole other story.
सम्हें (प्रोनौन्केद सो - अनऔरसो in ) औरहल्लोवीनअसमोस्टक्नोवआईटी Samhain (pronounced sow in or sow an) was what halloween was originally called. It was when the ancestors and recently departed were honoured and dark spirits were warded away by wearing masks and costumes and burning fires and decorating turnips. The Celtic pagans, of the old Scotland, Ireland and England, revered this holy time of the year linked to the changing of the seasons. They gathered food to see them through the coming months. The name changed to Halloween in the 16th century and came from the words All Hallows Eve which is the night before All Hallows Day or as it is known now - All Saints Day on November 1st. This is when Catholics commemorate all the faithful departed. Many countries have these wonderful traditions of remembering the dead - China has the Ghost Festival where food and money is offered to the dead, Spain has the Day of the Dead where graves of loved ones are visited and special food is eaten. In Bali, last January, we saw a celebration where everyone visited the village of their birth to pray for their ancestors and every household made a bamboo pole with flowers and cakes to decorate the street outside their home. The photo above is the penjor or bamboo pole decorations in a Balinese village( thanks wicandra )
The lucky buns, filled with lotus paste, were originally placed on 3 bamboo towers outside the Pak Tai Temple in Cheung Chau off Hong Kong every May as a celebration.
Cheung Chau Bun Festival began way back in the Qing Dynasty (大清Great Qing 1644–1912 ) to make amends with the spirit world and calm the restless spirits. The bun festival is a week long celebration which includes the bun scrambling competition where participants scramble up towers covered in buns, trying to grab them. The winner is the person who has the most buns from the highest part of the tower. Traditionally the towers were constructed of bamboo but after the collapse of a tower in 1978, which injured many people, the competition was closed. It was re opened in 2005 with just 12 competitors climbing one single steel constructed Bun Mountain.
The International Liar's Festival in Moncrabeau, South France is held early every August. Storytellers, boasters and braggers spin their yarns in turn and the winner of the tallest tale is crowned.
The Academy of Liars was established in this town in 1748 and it's officials, who swear to parody the truth, are the judges of the competition.
When:1st Sunday in August, 5 euros to enter. Tourist office of Moncrabeau 47600 MONCRABEAU Tel. 05.53.97.24 .50 - Fax 05.53.65.67 .74
