The Most Beautiful Traditional Festivals In Asia

You celebrate the beginning of spring, you drive away demons, you honor ancestors or gods or thank for a good harvest. Fixed dates in East and Southeast Asia are often used as an opportunity to hold family reunions, hold markets and celebrate colorful folk festivals.

India: Pushkar festival

● The occasion: Visiting the gods in the small town of Pushkar in Rajasthan during the autumn full moon (end of October, beginning of November), which is celebrated with a pilgrimage and a big cattle market

● The festival: Ritual washing of thousands of pilgrims in Pushkar Lake to wash sins and heal diseases, gigantic market with camels, buffaloes, horses and sheep, pure fairground atmosphere with camel races, acrobatics, jugglers, tea rooms, tug-of-war competitions, carousels, music, dances, food stalls, showmen, stalls, tattoo booths and beauty contest for camels.

Bhutan: Paro-Fest

● The occasion: Five-day monastery festival in honor of Guru Rinpoche at the beginning of spring (March, April) in the Paro Valley, symbolizing the victory of spring over winter or good over evil.

● The Feast: Dramatic dances by masked monks dressed in colorful costumes representing gods, accompanied by rattles, timpani, gongs, drums and conch horns, processions of lamas and dignitaries through dense crowds, performances of jokers, culminating in the Thangka ceremony where a large scroll painting is revealed and sprinkled with holy water.

Myanmar: Taung Pyone Festival

● The occasion: Annually worshiping Nats (spirits) in Taung Pyone village north of Mandalay, which attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year in July / August (Appointment 2018: 19-26 August)

● The festival: In honor of two sons of the king, who are said to have changed into ghosts after their death, held a festival in which believers in front of nat statues make offerings such as food and flowers, hold processions and perform dances, while visiting nat-media their stalls to dance, to sing (to donate), to sing and to predict the future of pilgrims.

Thailand: Loy Krathong

● The event: Nationally celebrated as well as in Laos and Myanmar celebrated the festival of light in the full moon night of the 12th lunar month (usually November), distributed with the Unbill and thanks for a good harvest.

● The feast: Evocative spectacles of light, when rafts made of banana or palm leaves, partly also made of bread dough, decorated with candles and incense sticks on rivers, ponds, lakes, canals and on the sea are put into the water and float slowly away, regionally also illuminated balloons in Floating in the sky, parades take place and eaten and drunk on the streets in a folk festival atmosphere.

Vietnam: Kate party

● The occasion: Three-day celebration (end of September, beginning of October) celebrated by the people of Cham in three temples in Ninh Thuan Province, commemorating heroes of history and family vows.

● Festivals: Colorful processions of locals in traditional dress, temple temples Po Inu Nagar, Po Klong Garai and Po Rome (offerings, prayers, dances, ritual ablutions, and new robes of gods), followed by family and community festivities friends with traditional music, dancing and singing, accompanied by ball games and cheerful competitions.

China: New Year

● The occasion: According to the lunar calendar, varying between 21st and 21st 2nd celebrated, multi-day Spring Festival, which also took place in the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, and settlement centers of overseas becomes Chinese (Chinatowns).

● The feast: Family celebration prepared by cleaning and decorating the house with symbols of happiness and offerings for the kitchen god, several feasts and ritual acts (opening the windows to allow luck, red envelopes with children's gifts, ancestor worship, etc.) and crowned by fireworks and lion dances.

Mongolia: Naadam festival

● The occasion: National holiday from 11th to 13th July commemorating independence in 1921, combined with a celebration of traditional Mongolian sports, celebrated primarily in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, but also in other cities.

● The festival: After a ceremonial opening ceremony, sports competitions in the disciplines of wrestling, archery and horse racing (only archery for men) and a side event in sheep bone throwing, accompanied by concerts and parades, and concluded with a celebration of culinary arts and singing.

Philippines: Ati Atihan festival

● The occasion: In Kalobo on the island of Panay, a one-week celebration celebrated every January to commemorate the peaceful reception of Malaysian immigrants by the native Ati 800 years ago, rededicated to Jesus worship by Spanish missionaries.

● The Feast: The opening Mass is followed by local parades with colorful costumes, masks and body paintings, traditional dances, drums and music, a rosary and torchlight procession in honor of the Infant Jesus and a contest among street dancers, whose winners will conclude the festivities with another show rounded off with gastronomy and handicraft festivals.

Japan: Gion Matsuri

● The occasion: A religious festival held in Kyoto throughout July, which has been held almost continuously since the 9th century, to ask the gods for protection against epidemics, earthquakes and fire disasters

● The festival: One of Japan's greatest festivals, with traditional dances and entertainment and lavish parades, where gods shrines are rolled on trolleys or carried by men on their shoulders through the street-side food stalls rounded off by a cleansing ceremony at Yasaka Shrine; interesting for visitors also the cultivated custom to open private houses for passers-by and to show family heirlooms.