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Festivals in 2010

Keep abreast of world events and celebrations with JourneyMart’s exhaustive list of holidays and festivals for the year 2010.





Upcoming Festivals
Goa Carnival Holi St Patricks Day Fallas De Valencia Spain

Goa Carnival

Pre-Lent carnivals are a time for fun and Goa's carnival is revelry all the way. It's the last big bash before the season of Lent starts, and this is when Goa parties for three days, non-stop.
The Carnival, true to form, is a time for unrestrained merrymaking, with dancing, processions, music and unlimited food being part and parcel of the festivities.

Momo, King of Chaos leads his entourage of fire- eaters, acrobats, clowns, jesters, dancers, brass bands and revellers in parade down the main street of Panaji, Goa. King Momo commands his people to 'kha, piye and majja kar' - eat, drink and make merry and so be it!

Holi

Florid yellows and lurid purple heaps in roadside stalls, folks dunked in indigo pools, dippy on bhang parties and simmering under a bright spring sun. If India is about colour, cannabis and catharsis (!), then it is the festival of Holi that has given it the reputation! Myth and religion mingle with the urge to have a great time; and Holi is a celebration as much of the 'triumph of good over evil' as of the coming of spring and the passing of winter.

Holi always occurs in spring when the countryside is bathed in a riot of colours in any case. Matching the yellow-gold of mustard fields, the loud magenta of bougainvillea blooms and the blazing orange of the flame of the forest, Indians take on every colour available in this festival of the spring. The festival is also a ritual of renewal; old relationships are pulled out of mothball preservation and aired in the sparkling sun.
Ammo for Holi includes water pistols, gulaal - coloured powder, coloured water - Flame of the Forest dye or water-soluble chemical nonsense…and the rest we leave to your imagination!

St Patrick's Day

Possibly Christendom’s most prominent saint, St Patrick is familiar even to the unchristian. The patron saint of Ireland because he brought Christianity to the island, his death anniversary and feast day is celebrated in March. St. Patrick's Day falls during the Christian season of Lent and Lent prohibitions are relaxed to allow people to dance, drink and devour meat!
Ireland uses its patron saint's feast day to showcase Irish culture - the celebration features parades, concerts, outdoor theatre shows and fireworks.

St Patrick’s Day is also celebrated in Australia, Canada, Singapore, Japan and Russia but naturally the biggest St Pat’s Day brouhaha happens in America. New Yorkers go green on St Patrick's Day - green clothes, green flowers, green shamrocks, green hats, green beers, green bagels, green water fountains, even the Empire State Building goes the Irish way!
Earlier St Patrick’s Day parades were simpler affairs, a return to roots for Irish soldiers serving in the English Army in America as they marched down New York’s streets in time to bagpipes and drumbeats. As more and more Irishmen, women and children joined in the parades, it metamorphosed into a coming together of the community and a show of strength.
Very soon annual St Patrick’s Day parades transformed the Irish into a major player in American democracy’s game of numbers. Local politicians acknowledged the indigent and underprivileged Irish immigrants as a powerful vote bank and their patronage helped the Irish overcome racial prejudice and national stereotypes.

Las Fallas de Valencia

Take a chunk of medieval history, sprinkle with Mediterranean flavour, add to it some fun, a bit of frolic and a dash of fireworks. Stir together and tightly pack the ingredients into effigies of papier-mache, wax and wood. Season with a generous helping of oil and flambé! Share with friends and fellowmen!
These ingredients combine to make Las Fallas de Valencia - the main course that’s served up at the pyromaniac’s delight, the annual feast of St Joseph, St John and St Anthony held in Valencia, Spain.

It was first cooked up by the medieval guilds, especially the wood workers who swept together spare pieces of wood, shavings and junk into a huge bonfire on the feast day of their patron saint, St Joseph. As the inter-guild competition heated up, passions flared, so did creativity and bonfires now included bizarre effigies (fallas) of despised rivals. And so began a tradition that evolved into the major tourist attraction of Valencia.