Festivals In Asia

By,
Ibrahim Pathan,
8B, 8215

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed unde

What is a festival?

A festival is a gathering of people to

celebrate something. It can also refer to a
one day or more when people in a country
have a holiday so that they can celebrate
something. Festivals may be religious or
national. we celebrate festivals is
because the majority of them are more or
less religiously centered and thus we come
to honor our religions. But festivals also
give a sense of enjoyment, relaxation and
offer the time needed to bond with family
members whom we never really see.
 Some of the famous
festivals in asia
• Harbin International
Ice & Snow Sculpture
Festival (China)
• Thaipusam (Malaysia) 
• Chinese New Year
(Singapore)
• Holi (India)
• Taiwan Lantern This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC B

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
Harbin International
Ice & Snow
Sculpture Festival
(China)
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
The festival originated in Harbin's traditional ice lantern
show and garden party that takes place in winter, which
began in 1963. It was interrupted for a number of years
during the Cultural Revolution, but has since been resumed
when an annual event at Zhaolin Park was announced on
January 5, 1985. In 2001 the Harbin Ice Festival was
merged with Heilongjiang's International Ski Festival and
got its new formal name, the Harbin International Ice and
Snow Sculpture Festival. At the 35th annual festival held in
2019, the festival's most popular attraction, the Harbin Ice
and Snow World, took up over 600,000 square meters and
included more than 100 landmarks. It was made from
110,000 cubic meters of ice and 120,000 cubic meters of
snow. The festival also included ice sculptures by artists
from 12 different countries competing in the annual
competition. Swing saws are used to carve ice into blocks,
taken from the frozen surface of the Songhua River.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.
Thaipusam
(Malaysia) Thaipusam is a festival celebrated by
the Tamil Hindu community on the full moon
in the Tamil
month of Thai (January/February), usually
coinciding with Pushya star, known
as Poosam in Tamil or Pooyam in Malayalam.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
The festival is also observed
among Keralites and is vernacularly
called Thaipooyam. It is mainly observed in
countries where there is a significant presence
of Tamil community such as India, Sri
Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius, as well as other
places where ethnic Tamils reside as a part of
the local Indian diaspora population such as
Canada, Singapore, South Africa, the United
States etc. It is a national holiday in many
countries such as Malaysia, Sri
Lanka and Mauritius. In India Tamil
Nadu state is declared for holiday. In certain
states of Malaysia and in the nations of Sri
Lanka and Mauritius, it is also a government
and a bank holiday. This festival was
(according to one tradition) said to have been
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 Chinese New
Year (Singapore)
Chinese New Year, Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year,
is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a  new
year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar.
In Chinese culture and Asian countries within Sinosphere,
the festival is also commonly referred to as Spring
Festival as the spring season in the lunisolar calendar
traditionally starts with lichun, the first of the twenty-
four solar terms which the festival celebrates around the
time of the Lunar New Year. Marking the end
of winter and the beginning of the spring season,
observances traditionally take place from New Year’s Eve,
the evening preceding the first day of the year to
the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The
first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon
that appears between 21 January and 20 February.  The
Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and
customs. The festival was traditionally a time to
honour deities as well as ancestors. Within China,
regional customs and traditions concerning the
celebration of the New Year vary widel, and the evening
preceding the New Year's Day is frequently regarded as
an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the
annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every
family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep
away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good
luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and
 holi

Holi is a popular ancient Indian festival, also known as the  "Festival of

Love", the "Festival of Colours" and the "Festival of Spring". The
festival celebrates the eternal and divine love of Radha Krishna. It also
signifies the triumph of good over the evil, as it celebrates the victory
of Vishnu as Narasimha Narayana over Hiranyakashipu. It originated and
is predominantly celebrated in India and Nepal but has also spread to
other regions of Asia and parts of the Western world through the diaspora
from the Indian subcontinent. Holi celebrations start on the night before
Holi with a Holika Dahan where people gather, perform religious rituals
in front of the bonfire, and pray that their internal evil be destroyed the
way Holika, the sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, was killed in
the fire. The next morning is celebrated as Rangwali Holi (Dhuleti) – a
free-for-all festival of colours, where people smear each other with colours
and drench each other. Water guns and water-filled balloons are also used
to play and colour each other. Anyone and everyone is fair game, friend or
stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children, and elders. The frolic and
fight with colours occurs in the open streets, parks, outside temples and
buildings. Groups carry drums and other musical instruments, go from
place to place, sing and dance. People visit family, friends and foes come
together to throw coloured powders on each other, laugh and gossip, then
share Holi delicacies, food and drinks. ]  In the evening, people dress up
and visit friends and family.
 Taiwan Lantern
Festival (Taiwan)

The Taiwan Lantern Festival is an annual event hosted by the  Tourism

Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and
Communications in Taiwan to celebrate the Lantern Festival. There are
many activities all over Taiwan during Taiwan Lantern Festival. During
the Taiwan Lantern Festival, thousands of sky lanterns light over Pingxi
District in Taiwan. In Yanshuei District, the firecrackers ceremony of
the Wumiao Temple is also one of the important activities. The
notoriously dangerous Tainan Yanshuei Fireworks Display also known as
the Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival, ("beehive of fireworks") was
originally celebrated to ward off evil and disease from the town. The
Taipei Pingxi Sky Lanterns were released originally to let others know
that the town was safe. These lanterns are decorated with wishes and
images relating to the owner. These two events are known together as
"Fireworks in the South, Sky Lanterns in the North.  Taiwanese people
write their wishes on the lanterns with a belief to bring an abundant crop.
Women wish for a new son to earn more hands to work. These lanterns fly
to the sky, bring their wishes to the Gods, and alternatively speak all
dreams them that being blessed with luck and good things.  The theme of
the main lanterns often corresponds with the zodiac signs of Chinese
astrology. All of them are over ten meters tall. Since 1999, every main
lantern has its own theme music which is about 3 minutes in length and
plays the rhythm when making performances during Taiwan Lantern
Festival.
 Thank you

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