Thousands of festivals – celebrations of special events or times of the year – take place all over the world every year. Singing, dancing, ritual (a kind of ceremony), costume or processions are a feature of many festivals. Some are family events. Others are large-scale festivals in which everyone takes part.
There are many festivals concerned with marriage and weddings. These may be to do with choosing a husband or wife, or with the courtship and marriage itself.
The Berber Festival of Brides is a traditional marriage festival celebrated by the Berber people in Morocco, North Africa, and every September. Thousands of men and women come to the festival, many of them hoping to find a partner. Men looking for a wife wear white clothes. The women are so heavily veiled that the men cannot see what they look like before deciding to marry them. The men and women start to talk to one another and some make up their minds to get married. An official scribe writes out a marriage application and a ceremony is carried out by an official called a qadi.
Some festivals are very large and involve whole towns and cities. Mardi Gras celebrations are held in towns and cities all over the world on the day before Lent, a period when Christians used to fast for 40 days.
The Maasai people of East Africa are cattle herders who live a semi-nomadic life. Young Maasai boys become members of the warrior class. Warriors are expected to be brave and fearless hunters, even though they do not rely on hunting for food. One test of their courage is the traditional lion hunt, although this is not carried out as often as it used to be because lions have become scarce. Before the hunt, the warriors perform ritual dances. One of these is the Namba, in which the dancers leap up in the air and land with their legs braced stiff.
Many people’s have ritual dances (performed for religious purposes) which go back to ancient traditions. The aboriginals of Australia are an example of such a people. They traditionally believe that the Earth and everything that lives on it were created by certain mythical beings. This process of creation is called “Dreamtime”. They believe that the spirit goes on forever, known as “Eternal Dreaming”. The music, dance and art of the aboriginals has been inspired by these religious beliefs and the importance they attach to their land.
People all over the world celebrate the harvest. In the Far East, they are concerned with ensuring the safe arrival of the rice crop. In Sumatra and Java in Indonesia, when the rice is ready to be cut, the oldest woman in the family goes to choose the “Rice-mother”, made from the first stalks that bend in the breeze. The chosen stalks are tied together, and then put into a barn to look after the rice as it is harvested.
Picture Credit : Google