68 Fun Facts About International Holiday

Diwali is best known as the Hindu festival of what?

Lights: families line their homes with rows of clay oil lamps to mark the victory of light over darkness, and many pray that night to Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.

By popular tradition, Diwali marks whose return to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile?

Rama's homecoming with Sita after defeating Ravana is the northern Indian story; in the south, the festival instead honours Krishna's victory over the demon Narakasura.

What do people throw at each other during Holi?

Coloured powder and water fly on the main day; the night before, bonfires recall the demoness Holika, who in legend burned while the devout Prahlad sat unharmed.

The Hindu festival of Holi welcomes which time of year?

Spring: Holi's date moves each year because it follows the full moon of the Hindu month of Phalguna, usually landing in late February or March.

Chinese New Year is also known by what name?

The Spring Festival: the name took hold after China adopted the Western calendar in 1912 and 1 January became the official New Year's Day.

In the Chinese New Year legend, the monster Nian feared loud noises and which colour?

Red paper on the doors and crackling bamboo drove Nian away in the tale, which is said to be why the festival is hung with red and loud with firecrackers.

What are the cash-filled envelopes given at Chinese New Year called in Mandarin?

Hongbao is the Mandarin term; lai see is Cantonese and angpow Hokkien. Givers favour crisp new notes and avoid any amount with a four in it, because the word sounds like 'death'.

Songkran, celebrated with nationwide water fights, is the New Year festival of which country?

Thailand's traditional New Year runs 13–15 April; the water thrown in the streets, and sprinkled on Buddha statues, symbolises washing away bad luck to start the year afresh.

Vietnam's Tết falls at roughly the same time as which other holiday?

Lunar New Year in China and Tết usually fall together because Vietnam's lunisolar calendar is modelled on China's; Vietnamese families mark it with peach blossoms or kumquat trees and bánh chưng, a square sticky-rice cake.

On Mexico's Day of the Dead, what do families build at home to welcome returning souls?

Altars laden with food, called ofrendas, hold the dead's favourite dishes beside candles, sugar skulls and pan de muerto, so that returning souls are treated as honoured guests.

Which flower is most closely associated with Mexico's Day of the Dead?

Marigolds, called cempasúchil in Mexico, are believed to guide the souls of the dead from the cemetery to the family home with their bright petals and strong scent.

Mexico City's big Day of the Dead parade was created after it appeared in which James Bond film?

Spectre (2015) opened with a fictional Day of the Dead parade through Mexico City; the city staged a real one in 2016 to meet tourist demand.

Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is timed to what astronomical event?

The spring equinox sets the clock: families gather to await its exact moment, which can fall at any hour, around 20 or 21 March; the festival's roots are Zoroastrian and more than 3,000 years old.

Nowruz's 'haft-sin' table holds seven items whose names all begin with which letter?

S: the items start with the Persian letter sin, among them apple (sib), garlic (sir), vinegar (serke) and home-grown sprouts (sabze), which are thrown into running water when the holidays end.

Iranians end Nowruz on its thirteenth day by doing what?

Picnicking outdoors is how families see out Sizdah Bedar: by popular belief the number thirteen is unlucky, and a day spent in nature is the way to ward the bad luck off.

Japan's Obon festival honours whom?

Obon welcomes the spirits of one's ancestors home each summer: families return to their hometowns to clean graves, dance the Bon Odori and float lanterns down rivers to guide the souls back.

Japan's Setsubun custom involves throwing what while shouting 'Demons out, fortune in'?

Roasted soybeans, called fukumame, are thrown out of the door or at a relative in a demon mask; afterwards you eat one bean for each year of your age, and many also eat an uncut ehomaki sushi roll in silence.

Japan's Golden Week opens on 29 April, the late Emperor Hirohito's birthday, with which holiday?

Showa Day, named for Hirohito's reign, has opened Golden Week since 2007; the date was the Emperor's Birthday while he lived, then Greenery Day, a name that nodded to his love of plants without mentioning him.

Korea's Chuseok, on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, is often translated into English as what?

Chuseok is often called Korean Thanksgiving because it is a harvest festival: families make songpyeon rice cakes and visit ancestral graves to tidy them and offer food.

Bali's Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is spent how?

In silence at home: for 24 hours Balinese Hindus make no fire, do no work and stay off the streets, the island's airport and seaports shut, and even tourists must keep to their hotels.

At the Loy Krathong full-moon festival, people float what on rivers and ponds?

Small decorated baskets with candles, called krathong, are made from banana trunk and leaves and floated to honour the goddess of water, carrying the maker's anger and ill feeling away with them.

Vesak, or Buddha Day, commemorates which three events in the Buddha's life?

His birth, enlightenment and death are all held to have fallen on the same full-moon day, so many Buddhists mark the three together; the UN recognised Vesak internationally in 1999.

Mongolia's Naadam festival centres on which 'three games of men'?

Wrestling, horse racing and archery make up Naadam, held 11–13 July; the races are ridden by children, who are lighter, since the contest is chiefly a test of the horse rather than the jockey.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of what?

Eid al-Fitr, the 'festival of breaking the fast', ends the month-long fast of Ramadan; it falls on the first day of Shawwal, begins with a special prayer, and zakat al-fitr must be paid before it.

Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, honours which prophet's willingness to sacrifice his son?

Eid al-Adha honours Ibrahim (Abraham), who was ready to sacrifice his son at God's command before a ram was provided instead; families sacrifice an animal and share the meat with the poor.

Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple after an uprising led by whom?

The Maccabees, led by Judah Maccabee, drove the Seleucid Greeks from Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple; by tradition a single day's supply of oil then burned for eight, hence the eight nights.

The Jewish festival of Purim commemorates the rescue of the Jews from Haman as told in which book?

The Book of Esther, read aloud from a scroll called the Megillah, tells how Queen Esther and Mordecai foiled Haman; the congregation drowns out Haman's name with graggers.

On Purim, Jews send friends parcels called mishloach manot, which must contain what?

Food and drink: each parcel must hold at least two ready-to-eat items, so that everyone has enough for the Purim feast later in the day; gifts to the poor are a separate duty.

Bastille Day, the French national day, is celebrated on which date?

14 July recalls both the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the Fête de la Fédération a year later: the 1880 law that created the holiday never said which, and the French simply call it le 14 juillet.

The first Bastille Day military parade, in 1880, was held at which racecourse?

Longchamp, the racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne, hosted the review every year until 1914; the parade moved to the Champs-Élysées with the 1919 Victory march led by Joffre, Foch and Pétain.

The first Oktoberfest, in 1810, celebrated what event?

A royal wedding: Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese, and Munich celebrated with a horse race on a meadow still called the Theresienwiese; repeating the race the next year began the tradition.

What phrase does the mayor of Munich shout after tapping the first keg at Oktoberfest?

'O'zapft is!' is Bavarian for 'It's tapped!'; mayor Thomas Wimmer began the ritual in 1950, and after the cry a twelve-gun salute tells the other tents they may start pouring.

Only beer meeting which condition can be sold at Oktoberfest?

Brewed within Munich's city limits: the rule leaves just six breweries, among them Paulaner, Augustiner and Hofbräu, supplying every tent, and their beer must also obey the Reinheitsgebot purity law.

In which Spanish town do people pelt each other with tomatoes at La Tomatina?

Buñol, a town of about 9,000 people near Valencia, has hosted La Tomatina on the last Wednesday of August since 1945; since 2013 entry has been capped at about 20,000 so the crowd doesn't swamp it.

Which safety rule about the tomatoes is every La Tomatina participant given?

Squash them before throwing is the town's rule, so the fruit bursts on impact instead of hurting anyone; players are also told not to tear each other's T-shirts.

Which writer made Pamplona's Festival of San Fermín and its running of the bulls world-famous?

Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises sent generations of visitors to watch six bulls and six steers stampede roughly half a mile through the old town to the bullring.

Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, the world's biggest, always ends on which day?

Ash Wednesday opens Lent, the 40 days of fasting before Easter, so Carnival is the last blowout before it: the party starts on the Friday before and winds up at noon on Ash Wednesday itself.

At Midsummer in Sweden, people traditionally dance around what?

A maypole dressed in leaves and flowers is raised for ring dances, the best loved of which has everyone hopping like little frogs; herring and strawberry cake follow.

On Saint Lucy's Day, 13 December, a Swedish girl portraying Lucia traditionally wears what on her head?

A crown of lit candles, today usually electric, lets Lucia carry light into the winter dark: in the old almanac her night was the longest of the year; saffron buns are the day's treat.

In Alpine folklore, which horned, goat-footed figure joins Saint Nicholas on 5 December to punish naughty children?

Krampus swats children with birch rods on Krampusnacht and carries a basket to cart off the wicked, while Saint Nicholas, at his side, rewards the well-behaved with small gifts.

What do Dutch children leave in the shoe they set out for Sinterklaas?

A carrot or hay for his horse goes in the shoe, since Sinterklaas is said to ride a white horse over the rooftops at night; by morning the children find sweets or a small present there.

Sinterklaas is said to arrive in the Netherlands each November by steamboat from which country?

Spain is where Dutch tradition has Sinterklaas live, sailing in by steamboat each November, though the historical Saint Nicholas was a Greek bishop of Myra, in present-day Turkey.

Boxing Day, 26 December, coincides with the feast of which saint?

26 December is the feast of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr ('Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen'); the Boxing Day name may come from church alms boxes opened for the poor.

The Australian cricket team traditionally opens a Test match on Boxing Day in which city?

Melbourne's Boxing Day Test was made a yearly fixture in 1980, alongside a new television deal; before that the holiday match at its cricket ground was a Sheffield Shield game between Victoria and New South Wales.

Guy Fawkes Night, 5 November, marks the failure of which 1605 conspiracy?

The Gunpowder Plot's collapse led Parliament to pass the Observance of 5th November Act 1605, mandating an annual thanksgiving; Guy Fawkes was caught guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords.

What is the Scots word for New Year's Eve and the Scottish way of celebrating it?

Hogmanay became Scotland's big winter party because the Kirk discouraged Christmas for nearly 400 years; 25 December was not even a Scottish public holiday until 1958.

In Scotland's first-footing tradition, the ideal first visitor after midnight is what?

The luckiest first-foot is a tall, dark-haired man, a preference said to date from Viking raids when a fair-haired stranger meant trouble; he brings coal, salt, shortbread, whisky or black bun.

Saint Patrick is said to have used which plant to explain the Holy Trinity?

The shamrock's three leaves are said to have been Patrick's picture of the Trinity; his feast, 17 March, falls in Lent, but the fasting rules were traditionally lifted for the day, which turned it into a party.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates a Mexican victory over which country's army in 1862?

France's army was beaten at Puebla on 5 May 1862 by an outnumbered, poorly supplied Mexican force under Ignacio Zaragoza; the day is not Mexico's Independence Day, which is 16 September.

Kwanzaa, the African American holiday first held in 1966, takes its name from which language?

Swahili supplied the name, from 'matunda ya kwanza', first fruits; Maulana Karenga created the holiday after the Watts riots in Los Angeles to bring African Americans together.

Timkat, when Ethiopian priests carry Ark replicas to the water, commemorates what?

The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan is what Timkat, the Ethiopian Epiphany, recalls: after a night of prayer the water is blessed and sprinkled on the crowd; UNESCO listed it in 2019.

Peru's Inti Raymi, staged each 24 June at Sacsayhuamán near Cusco, honours which Inca deity?

The sun god Inti was honoured at the southern winter solstice until Spanish authorities banned the rite as pagan; Cusco revived it in 1944 as a staged pageant drawn from a colonial chronicle.

Anzac Day, 25 April, commemorates the 1915 landing at which place?

The Anzacs landed at Gallipoli, on Turkey's Dardanelles peninsula, at dawn on 25 April 1915; dawn services mark the hour, and the gambling game two-up is traditionally played that day.

Waitangi Day, 6 February, marks the signing of a treaty between Māori chiefs and which power in 1840?

The British Crown and Māori chiefs signed two texts that differ: the English one cedes sovereignty, the Māori one grants only governance, a gap argued over ever since; the day became a public holiday in 1974.

Canada Day, 1 July, was known by what name until 1982?

Dominion Day became Canada Day through a private member's bill that slipped through the House of Commons in July 1982 with only about a dozen MPs in the chamber; the Senate approved it that autumn.

Australia Day marks 26 January 1788, when the First Fleet left Botany Bay to land at which spot?

Sydney Cove, in Port Jackson, was Arthur Phillip's choice after Botany Bay proved exposed, shallow and short of fresh water; many Indigenous Australians mark the date as Invasion Day or Survival Day.

In Western churches, what does Epiphany chiefly commemorate?

Western churches keep Epiphany as the visit of the Magi, the Three Kings, to the Christ Child; across Latin America children wake that morning to find the kings' gifts in their shoes.

Zongzi, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, is the traditional food of which Chinese festival?

Dragon Boat: in the best-known legend, villagers threw rice into the river so the fish would spare the body of the drowned poet Qu Yuan, and the boat races re-enact their dash to save him.

Mooncakes, filled with sweet bean or lotus-seed paste, are eaten during which Chinese festival?

Mid-Autumn is a family reunion festival: relatives gather under the full moon, whose roundness stands for the family being whole, and share mooncakes by lantern light.

At China's Lantern Festival, what activity do children traditionally enjoy besides carrying paper lanterns?

Solving riddles on them is the tradition: owners paste a riddle on each lantern, and whoever guesses the answer can claim a small prize.

The Chinese Qingming Festival is known in English by what name?

Tomb-Sweeping Day sends families to the family graves in early April to clear weeds, lay out food and burn joss paper that stands for money; Qingming itself means 'clear and bright'.

Shetland's Up Helly Aa fire festival climaxes with the burning of what?

A replica Viking galley is hauled through Lerwick by costumed guizers, who hurl their torches into it; the festival grew out of rowdier Yule nights of dragging blazing tar barrels through the streets.

At a Burns supper, which dish is brought in to bagpipes and addressed with a poem?

Haggis is piped in, then the speaker recites Burns's 'Address to a Haggis' and plunges a knife into it mid-verse; the first supper was held by the poet's friends at his Ayrshire cottage in 1801.

In German folklore, who gathers on the Brocken mountain on Walpurgis Night, 30 April?

Witches were said to meet on the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz, to revel with the Devil, a scene Goethe used in Faust; the bonfires lit that night were meant to ward them off.

What happens to the elaborate constructions built for Valencia's Falles festival at its climax?

They are burned on the final night, La Cremà; since 1934 the public has voted each year to pardon its favourite figures, which are spared the fire and kept in the Fallas museum.

At the Tamil harvest festival Pongal, families cheer when a pot of rice and milk does what?

Boils over: the overflowing pot is a sign of abundance, greeted with shouts of 'Pongalo Pongal!', and the festival's very name means 'boiling over' in Tamil.

Ganesh Chaturthi ends with the god's idols carried through the streets and then what?

Immersed in water: the idols go into a river or the sea as a farewell to Ganesha until next year; in the 1890s Bal Gangadhar Tilak turned the family rite into a public festival to unite Indians under British rule.

Kerala's Onam festival celebrates the annual return of which legendary king to visit his people?

Mahabali, a generous king, lost his realm to Vishnu's dwarf avatar Vamana, who asked for three steps of land and then banished him to the netherworld; Kerala greets his yearly visit with feasts and flower carpets.