Festivals in Central Asia

Central Asian Festivals

26 Central Asia Festival Articles

2 Central Asia Festival Snippets

22 Central Asia Festival Photo Galleries

19 Central Asia Festival Videos

60 Central Asia Festival Websites

Central Asia Festivals » 26 Articles

Article Title: Naked Men Festival - Hadaka Matsuri

Festival Name: Naked Men Festival

Festival Country: Japan

Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Nude, Traditional

In the Hadaka Matsuri (the Naked Men Festival) instead of sharing good fortune, for one night, every February, 10,000 tattoo-less men gather at the Buddhist temple to fight for it.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Article Title: Golden Week - Green Day, Constitution Day, The People's Holiday, Children's Day

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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