Festivals in Worldwide

New Years was great. Friends, food, fun - it had it all. Too bad it only comes once a year. Or does it? With some travel and a hefty supply of good cheer, you can celebrate the New Year all year long.

Twenty-six years ago I traveled to the North Pole in search of Santa Claus. I didn't get any further than Barrow, Alaska - the Arctic Ocean was completely frozen in huge mounds of ice - but the people there said I needn't go any further since no one lives at the North Pole. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. But my quest for Santa Claus continued until this year.

No night in all the year is so charged with the supernatural as Christmas Eve - or so the legends say.

Encyclopaedia Britannica states that Hallowe'en is 'All Hallows' Eve or All Hallows' Evening, a holy or hallowed evening observed on October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day'. This Christian festival was first introduced in the 7th century CE, initially on May 13th.

Lent begins at midnight on Shrove Tuesday. The first day of Lent is known as 'Ash Wednesday'. On this day the Bishop would bless the hair shirts which penitents were to wear during Lent.

It is difficult to trace how April Fool's Day originated, but it seems to be connected with the date of the New Year under the Julian calendar.

Irish Easter begins, as do most Irish seasonal celebrations, with cleansing. Houses are to be cleaned inside and out, and whitewashed if necessary. As is the custom in the United States and many other places around the world, it is a time to purchase new clothing.

'The sun's dancing day and the earths' holy day' - this is Jacobean poet Nicolas Breton's description of Easter Day. The British believed in ancient times that the sun danced for joy as it rose at Easter to commemorate Christ's resurrection. In many parts of Wales crowds still climb just before the dawn to the highest point in the area to watch the sun 'dance' as it rises on Easter Day. In the Vale of Clwyd villagers used to dance three somersaults on the top of Dinas Bran, thereby greeting the sun rise.

Let those who have no light in themselves light candles!' thundered the great Roman Tertullian. 'Let those over whom Hell fire is hanging, fix to their doors laurels doomed presently to burn. You are the light of the world, you are the tree ever green...make not your own house a temple.' Like the Puritans in later centuries, Tertullian urged the people to stop their so-called 'pagan' festivities at Christmas time.

The festival of Floralia began around the year 258 BCE. Pagan Romans celebrated for six days, from April 27th to May 3rd, honouring their Goddess of Spring and of Flowers, Flora.