Sunshine and surplus crops
- POSTED ON: 11 Jan, 2019
- TOTAL VIEWS: 757 Views
- POSTED BY: Madhuvanti S. Krishnan
- ARTICLE POINTS: 100 Points
Harvest festivals celebrated across our country are many. From Pongal, to Baisakhi, the manner in which they are celebrated are also unique. Here’s a look at some popular harvest festivals across India.>/p>
Now that you have a fair idea about India, what about the rest of the world? Well, read on…
Communities around the world honour the harvest season with celebrations. Here are some global favourites.
Madeira Flower Festival, Madeira, Portugal: Funchal’s April flower festival fills the air with fragrance and marks the arrival of spring in Portugal. Each of the island’s children bring a bloom to create the colourful Muro da Esperança (Wall of Hope), and intricate flower carpets line the streets.
Rice Harvest, Bali, Indonesia: Dewi Sri, the rice Goddess, is venerated in Bali, where rice is the staple crop. During the harvest, villages are festooned with flags, and simple bamboo temples dedicated to the goddess are erected in the most sacred corners of the rice fields. Small dolls of rice stalks representing Dewi Sri are placed in granaries as offerings.
Olivagando, Magione, Italy: This two-day festival, in November, celebrates the feast day of St. Clement and the local olive harvest, bringing together everyone involved in the production of olive oil. A priest blesses the new oil at a special Mass, and the town hosts a medieval dinner in its 12th-century castle.
Chanthaburi Fruit Fair, Thailand:Chanthaburi is renowned for its native fruits. During the summer harvest, the annual Fruit Fair exhibits exotic durians, rambutans, longans, and mangosteens in vibrant arrangements. There are art displays, and the opening-day parade features floats made from thousands of tropical fruits and vegetables.
Sukkot, Jerusalem, Israel: It’s a celebration of Israel’s harvest, and locals reminisce about the time when the Israelites wandered the desert living in temporary shelters. Families build makeshift huts, or sukkah, with roofs open to the sky. Here, they eat, and sometimes sleep, for the next seven days.