Events and Festivals

Events and Festivals attract performers and visitors from all corners of the globe. Participation to these festivals is spontaneous and universal in nature. Some festivals require week long practice while some are impromptu. Apart from festivals there are popular as well as baffling events which occur regularly and attract large number of tourists.

Popular Festivals

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is perhaps the grandest of all festivals. It is a display of glamour, grandeur, grace and mirth. Musical bands, dance groups, float parades in unison create a hallucinating ambiance impossible to overcome. This Brazilian festival is held annually four days ahead of Ash Wednesday.

Oktoberfest in Munich is attended by travelers from Europe and elsewhere. Held from 16th September to 2nd October, this German fest is an event of merry making and fun. This fortnight long festival begins from 11 o'clock in the morning and continues till late evening hours. Fairs, musical parties, and beer drinking competitions keep the spirit of this festival high.

Las Fallas, in Valencia, Spain is an unbelievable display of fireworks for eight days during the month of March. Thousands of visitors gather in the afternoon to 'listen' to an incredible rhythmic bursting of crackers for fifteen minutes. Giant sized idols stuffed with fireworks are burnt throughout the evening. Groups keep coming in one after the other displaying their weird idols and thereafter burning them.

Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan attracts thousands of visitors from all parts of the world. The cherry trees start blooming from end of March in southern Japan and gradually get delayed as you move north. The trees in north Japan bloom towards April end. The blooming of cherry trees is accompanied by lot of merriment, fun and ceremonies.

Outstanding Events

Red crab migration is an amazing natural phenomenon that takes place in Christmas Islands in the Indian Ocean south of Java. In October and November every year millions of crabs migrate to this island to lay and hatch their eggs. Another similar event takes place among whales in the Pacific Ocean along the western coast of North America. Every year whale migration from Alaska coast and Bering Sea to California coast and Gulf of California begins from October end. The first whales arrive in early December and the migration continues till January. The return journey begins from April and continues till June.