Central Asian Festivals | Festivals in Central Asia
Central Asian Festivals
» 25 articles | 2 snippets | 19 photo galleries | 11 videos | 33 links
The results listed below include links through to festival articles, festival snippets, festival photo galleries, festival videos and festival web sites external to 2camels that relate to festivals in Central Asia.
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Central Asian Festival Articles
25 festival article(s) returned for Central Asia
Displaying article(s) 1 to 25 ordered by festival name
Article Title: Hahoe Folk Village
Festival Name: Andong Mask Dance Festival
Festival Country: South Korea
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Historical, Traditional
The restless spirits wanted appeasing so a plan was struck. One night one of them entered the dream of a young member of the Ho clan and instructed him to make wooden masks to be used in a ritual dance for the spirits' pleasure.
Article Title: Budha's Birthday Celebrations in Hong Kong
Festival Name: Budha's Birthday
Festival Country: Hong Kong
Festival Type(s): Religious, Traditional, Cultural
The Lord Buddha's birthday falls in early May on the Chinese calendar, and since 1999 Hong Kong has celebrated it as a public holiday.
Article Title: Cherry Blossom Festival
Festival Name: Cherry Blossom Festival
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Floral, Local, Traditional
Visitors come from all over the island, from mainland Japan, and even from other countries to see the earliest sign of the approaching spring.
Article Title: Happy (Chinese) New Year!
Festival Name: Chinese New Year
Festival Country: China
Festival Type(s): New Year, Traditional
The Chinese calendar is based on lunar-solar cycles. Five cycles of twelve years each make up the entire lunar cycle of 60 years.
Article Title: Coming of Age Day - Seijin No Hi
Festival Name: Coming of Age Day - Seijin No Hi
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Traditional
Seijin No Hi was declared a national holiday in Japan in 1948 and in Okinawa in 1961. It is a day of tradition, but also of fun. In addition, it is a day of advice and wise words and a day to begin exercising the rights of adulthood.
Article Title: Doll Festival
Festival Name: Doll Festival
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Traditional
Hina Matsuri translates into "doll festival" but this fun holiday is more commonly known as Girls Day and is celebrated every March 3rd.
Article Title: Dragon Boat Races
Festival Name: Dragon Boat Races
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Dragon Boat, Sport - Water, Traditional
Throughout the spring and early summer an annual tradition is carried out in many of the fishing ports around Okinawa. This colorful event is called the Haari or Dragon Boat Races.
Article Title: Eisa, Eisa!
Festival Name: Eisa Festival
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Traditional
The Eisa festival, held at the conclusion of Obon in late August, marks the end of summer and is the last big festival of the year. It is a time of great celebration and the time to bid farewell to the spirits of ancestors who have come back to earth for Obon.
Article Title: Moon Over My Army
Festival Name: Full Moon Party
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Lunar, Traditional, Cultural
A popular legend tells a very sad tale. It seems Gosamaru was the lord of the Village of Yamada in Yomitan. He built Zakimi Castle, took part in foreign trade and became very rich and powerful.
Festival Name: Golden Week
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Traditional
Golden Week is one of the happiest times in Okinawa. With four holidays occurring within the week, many businesses are closed and schools are out. Those businesses that have to remain open can count on increased revenues as people celebrate the different holidays.
Article Title: Hadaka Matsuri - Naked Festival
Festival Name: Hadaka Matsuri - Naked Festival
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Nude, Adult, Bizarre
Talk about male bonding! Have you ever gotten together with your buddies, stripped down to your thongs, and paraded around the neighborhood? In groups of 10-12 people at night? In mid-winter? No? Well, since I know you're dying to do this, I'll tell you about the Naked Festival in Saidaiji, Okayama prefecture.
Article Title: Hamauri - A Cleansing Tradition
Festival Name: Hamauri - Beach Visiting Day
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Cultural
In early April you may be surprised to see more people than usual at the beaches. April 2nd (or March 3rd on the lunar calendar) is the day Hamauri or Beach Visiting is celebrated. This tradition all began with a very strange legend.
Article Title: Beer, Women and Huge Male Genitalia
Festival Name: Hounen Matsuri
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Traditional, Adult
Not to be outdone, every March 15th, the small town of Komaki, Japan celebrates Hounen Matsuri. Matsuri means festival and Hounen, I'm fairly sure, means Big Wooden Penis. Okay, actually it means something much less interesting, but it SHOULD mean Big Wooden Penis, because there is, in fact, a Big Wooden Penis featured prominently throughout the festival.
Article Title: Fertile Fun
Festival Name: Hounen Penis Fertility Festival
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Traditional, Street Parade
Remember the joke about the three old ladies and the flasher? Two had a stroke, but the other one couldn't quite reach.... Well, the Hounen matsuri (festival), held annually at Komaki's Tagata-jinja shrine, provides plenty of opportunities for all present to get their hands on some outsized phalli.
Article Title: Itel'men Tribal Harvest Festival - Kamchatka, Russia
Festival Name: Itel'men Tribal Harvest Festival
Festival Country: Russia
Festival Type(s): Indigenous, Harvest, Traditional
Out on the tundra, eyes level with the humps of juniper and blueberry bushes, I crouched and surveyed the horizon. The violet, burnt orange, purple, and brick red rolled in waves to the fading blue sky. Sunset on the far eastern reaches of Siberia.
Article Title: Kanamara Matsuri Festival - Festival of the Steel Phallus
Festival Name: Kanamara Matsuri Festival - Festival of the Steel Phallus
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Traditional, Adult
A large, pink phallus turns the corner and heads down the street. Sitting atop the shoulders of 10-12 men in bandanas, it bobs up and down to their rhythmic chants. Locals carve white radishes into images of the male reproductive system, preparing to auction them off at an afternoon banquet. Transvestites line the street; their red lipstick and hairy legs are no less a contrast than the grandmother who's licking on a lollypop that's in the shape of a....well, you can probably guess by now.
Article Title: King of the Hill in Kazakhstan
Festival Name: Khan Tengri Mountain Festival
Festival Country: Kazakhstan
Festival Type(s): Sport - Mountaineering, Sport - Extreme
In the field of X-treme competitions, Hawaii's Ironman and Alaska's Iditarod strike awe into the hearts of competitors and spectators alike. In a remote corner of a remote country, a new race goes beyond X-treme. Rick Hudson reports.
Article Title: Maslenitsa - Russian Mardi Gras
Festival Name: Maslenitsa - Russian Mardi Gras
Festival Country: Russia
Festival Type(s): Mardi Gras, Street Parade, Carnival
The Russian Orthodox calendar includes four Lent-like fasts. The one coming before Easter is called the "Great Fast." Like the Catholic tradition, Russian Orthodoxy respects the need to enjoy oneself before a month of self-denial. In Russian, this week-long festival is called Maslenitsa.
Article Title: Mid Autumn Festival - Moon Viewing and Moon Cakes
Festival Name: Mid Autumn Festival - Moon Festival
Festival Country: China
Festival Type(s): Lunar, Harvest, Natural Phenomenon
Some countries call it Harvest Festival; there is a Harvest moon. Others note the autumnal equinox as a sign of the changing seasons. Here in China, they call it the Mid-Autumn festival, celebrated during the full moon that falls between the mid-September and mid-October. On this night of the full moon, tradition says that you sit outdoors with your family throughout the night, admiring the moon, talking, and eating special sweet cakes called Moon Cakes.
Article Title: Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
Festival Name: Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
Festival Country: Taiwan
Festival Type(s): Lunar, Traditional
Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is one of the more important holidays on the Chinese calendar. I'd heard of it at in college, but didn't really know anything about it, other than looking at the moon was important.
Article Title: Volunteering in the Land of the Blue Sky
Festival Name: Naadam Festival
Festival Country: Mongolia
Festival Type(s): Sport - Equestrian, Traditional
Sun baked soil billowed around us, thrown up by hundreds of horses' hooves. As I stepped back to avoid the nomads streaming past on their stocky mounts I could feel dust particles grinding between my teeth and sticking to my skin. It had been less than two weeks since I had left the British Isles with a group of nine other volunteers to take part in a work and travel scheme in Mongolia working for the Mongolian Youth Development Centre (MYDC) for the summer, but we had been lucky enough to be given a couple of days off for the national Naadam Festival.
Article Title: Only Russians Know How to Greet the New Year
Festival Name: New Year in Russia
Festival Country: Russia
Festival Type(s): New Year, Party, Food and Drink
One of the first questions my Russian acquaintances ask me is, "Have you ever celebrated the New Year in Russia?" When I say I haven't, they always laugh. Until I've met the New Year Russian-style, they tell me, I have never really celebrated it at all. My attempts to tell them about the Times Square parties leave them unimpressed.
Article Title: In the 'Spirit' of Welcome
Festival Name: Obon
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Traditional
The Japanese have long respected their elders who are held in high esteem for their wisdom. They bestow many honors upon them both before and after death. Okinawans return to their family homes for obon, some of them traveling thousands of miles.
Article Title: Sol-nal, Korean New Year's
Festival Name: Sol-nal - Korean New Year
Festival Country: South Korea
Festival Type(s): New Year
Thus, across the Land of the Morning Calm, New Year's Day will be celebrated twice-once according to international convention, and once according to the lunar calendar.
Article Title: Tanabata Festival
Festival Name: Tanabata Festival
Festival Country: Japan
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Traditional
If you love romance this is the festival for you! On the seventh night of the seventh moon, or July 7th, Tanabata is celebrated. Tanabata is also known as the Star Festival or the Festival of the Star-Crossed Lovers. First celebrated in 755, this festival as well as many others began with a popular legend.
Central Asian Festival Snippets
2 festival snippet(s) returned for Central Asia
Displaying snippet(s) 1 to 2 ordered by festival name
Festival Name
Festival Country
Central Asian Festival Photo Galleries
19 festival photo gallerie(s) returned for Central Asia
Displaying photo gallerie(s) 1 to 19 ordered by festival name
Festival Name
Festival Country
Macau
China
Hong Kong
Macau
China
Japan
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Mongolia
Central Asian Festival Videos
11 festival video(s) returned for Central Asia
Displaying video(s) 1 to 11 ordered by festival name
Festival Name
Festival Country
North Korea
Hong Kong
Japan
Japan
Japan
Central Asian Festival Links
33 festival link(s) returned for Central Asia
Displaying link(s) 1 to 33 ordered by festival name
Festival Name
Festival Country
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Georgia
Taiwan
China
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Azerbaijan
Russia
Japan
South Korea
Japan
South Korea
China
Georgia
Japan
China
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