People love to celebrate. Whether it's a birthday or a wedding, we enjoy having a reason to relax and have a good time. This is especially true for festivals that welcome spring and summer. Here are some celebrations you may not know about.
Carabao is a buffalo(水牛) found in the Philippines, and the Carabao Festival is a day of dancing and revelry(狂欢)in May that celebrates the strong animal that plays such an important role in Philippine farming economy. The animals are cleaned before a parade in which 20 or more of them—many decorated with paint and colorful ribbons—walked through the streets.
Cooper's Hill is a steep, grassy knoll(圆丘) near Gloucester, England, which is longer than a football field. Cooper's Hill is a late May event in which participants race one another to beat a nine-pound cheese round to the bottom of the hill. The event attracts lots of contestants but is harder than it sounds. Lots of contestants bite the dust before they reach the finish line. The winner gets the cheese.
The Boryeong Mud Festival takes place each summer near Seoul, Republic of Korea. Tons of mud are trucked from the Boryeong mud flats to a beach area near the event. People participate in lots of activities, including a mud pool, mud skiing and mudslides. By the time the celebration is over, anyone coated in soft or dried mud can take a short walk to the beach for a quick bath.
La Tomatina is an organized tomato fight that takes place in Bunol, Spain, every August. The festival's origins are unclear, but that hasn't lessened anyone's enthusiasm. The battle lasts for about an hour, and participants have to throw squashed(挤烂的) tomatoes to reduce the risk of injury. After the fight, both the people and the streets are covered with tomato guts. Fire trucks then begin the difficult task of washing everything.
Most Chinese people expect to relax and enjoy themselves during the Golden Week. But for those trying to go someplace, it may seem more disappointment than pleasure. This year, the traffic jam resulted in a roadside wedding(婚礼).
The suffering of being stuck in traffic was probably most strongly felt by Lv Kangzhou and his bride(新娘) Yan Mengxia. By tradition, the groom(新郎) drove early in the morning to the bride's home in Zhejiang Province in East China to pick her up along with her family and take them to his family's hometown for the wedding. By 4 pm, Lv's wedding was 90 minutes away, but his car had not moved an inch for a long time. Lv got in touch with the local radio to explain his difficult situation and ask for a traffic forecast. The radio host told Lv there was no way to hold his wedding on time and offered to hold their wedding on the air. At 5: 30 pm, Lv and his bride said their vows(发誓) on the side of the road, and Lv's family and friends witnessed the ceremony by listening to the radio.
Lv wasn't the only person stuck in the Golden Week crowds. According to the state news agency Xinhua, 11. 7 million people traveled by train on Wednesday. About 120, 000 people gathered at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing to watch the flag-raising ceremony. Last year, the Forbidden City in Beijing hosted 175, 000 tourists on one day during the Golden Week, and the number is expecting to be even bigger this year.
Chinese Internet users complain about the Golden Week holiday every year. An Internet user Tuzhi said on Sina Weibo:" On the Great Wall, I'm holding your hand, but I cannot see your face. "
The Miao Sisters Festival is held every year in Guizhou's Taijiang County, where 97 percent of the 168, 000 people there are from the ethnic (民族) Miao group. It is an ancient tradition, which brings men and women together through food, gifts and music.
In the days before the festival, young women gather leaves and wild flowers, which they use to dye (给……染色) sticky rice with bright colors. This brightly colored rice, known as Sister Rice, gives the festival its name. During the festival, the young women dress in beautiful traditional clothes with large amounts of silver jewelry.
The festival includes parades, horse races and musical performances. But the real focus is the interaction between the young women and the young men who visit from surrounding villages and sing songs. In one traditional type of song, a man and woman take turns singing to each other, and the first one to make a mistake loses the game. The loser must give the winner a gift, but the winner is expected to give a gift in return too.
After meeting the men, the women send them home with a bamboo basket containing dyed rice and hidden objects with special meanings. For example, a pair of chopsticks means she wants to marry the man, while garlic shows that she is not interested.
One of several stories is about the festival's beginning of a girl and a boy who fell in love. The girl's parents wanted her to marry her uncle's son as was traditional at the time. She refused, and the boy likewise refused to marry anyone else. For a time, they could only meet in a field and pass hidden messages to each other through rice in a bamboo basket. Finally, the pair overcame their parents' opposition and were allowed to marry.
The Sisters Rice Festival is perhaps the oldest festival in Asia that encourages love.
Valentine's Day is known as a day of love and romance on February 14th every year.
There are a few different versions of its origin and history, one of which dates back an ancient Roman festival, Lupercalia, (celebrate) on February 1st. On this day, young single women would place (they) names in a huge container and young bachelors of the town would come and draw a name from it. The young man and the woman, name was picked would become partners for the (follow) years. Many of these couples would eventually get (marry). It (believe) that the month of February is perfect for romance.
Valentine's Day was originally celebrated in Europe, but in recent years it is also celebrated in China, (especial) among young people. Interestingly, China has its own Valentine's Day, Qixi Festival, on the 7th day of the 7th month of our lunar calendar. It is in memory of a day on which the legendary cow-herder and weaving-maid (allow) to be together, after being separated by the Milky Way for a whole year. What interesting story!
