By:Vaduva Dragos Pavel Marcu

Carnival; Chinese New Year; Çocuk Bayrami; Day of the Dead; May Day; St. Lucia; Bibliography.

Brazil’s most popular and festive holiday is Carnival. In fact, many people consider Carnival one of the world’s biggest celebrations. Each spring, on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the streets of Brazil’s largest city, Rio de Janeiro, come alive with wild parties, festivals and glamorous balls.

The Samba School Parade is the highlight of the four-day event. About 3,000 performers, clad in ornate costumes embellished with feathers, beads and thousands of sequins, dance down the parade route alongside dazzling floats and into the Sambadrome-a dance stadium built for the event. Judges award a prize to the most spectacular group of dancers.

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The new year begins on the first day of the Chinese calendar, which usually falls in February, and the festivities continue for 15 days.

At Chinese New Year celebrations, people wear red clothes, give children “lucky money” in red envelopes and set off firecrackers. Red symbolizes fire, which the Chinese believe drives away bad luck. Family members gather at each other's homes for extravagant meals. Chinese New Year ends with a lantern festival. People hang decorated lanterns in temples and carry lanterns to an evening parade under the light of the full moon. The highlight of the lantern festival is often the dragon dance. The dragon-which can stretch a hundred feet long-is typically made of silk, paper and bamboo.

Each April 23, Turkey celebrates Çocuk Bayrami, or Children’s Day. Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the holiday in 1920, as Turkey was becoming an independent nation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, to illustrate that children were the future of the new nation.

Children all over Turkey dress up in special outfits or the national costume for Çocuk Bayrami. Boys who dress in the national costume typically wear baggy silk pants, a colorful vest, a white shirt and a sequined hat, called a tepelik. Girls wear a long colorful gown called a kaftan and an ornate veil. Many children perform in plays or musicals. The centerpiece of Çocuk Bayrami takes place in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, where children from all over the world sing and dance in a spectacular pageant.

Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1 in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and other parts of Central and South America. Families gather to pray to the souls of dead relatives, asking them to return for just one night. People decorate altars in their homes and gravesites with food, candles, candy skulls and marigolds to welcome the souls back to earth. Skeletons are displayed throughout cities, and people dressed as skeletons parade through the streets. Pan de los muertos (bread of the dead) is baked in the shape of skulls and crossbones, and a toy is hidden inside each loaf. The person who bites into the toy is said to have good luck. Day of the Dead sounds like a grim event, but it’s a time to celebrate and remember the lives of dead family members.

Children in England celebrate the end of winter and the arrival of spring on May 1 each year. The festivities center around a huge striped maypole that’s decorated with flowers and streamers. Children hold the streamers as they dance around the pole, weaving intricate patterns as they pass each other. Men also join in on the fun. A group of six or eight Morris dancers arrange themselves in two lines and wave handkerchiefs or sticks as they dance by each other. A May Queen is crowned each year to preside over the celebration. May Day dates back to ancient times, when Romans honored Flora, the goddess of spring.

On December 13, one of the longest and darkest nights of the winter, Swedes celebrate the festival of St. Lucia, the patron saint of light. In many homes, a girl gets up early in the morning and puts on a long white dress, with a red sash at the waist, and a laurel crown decorated with four candles. She serves her family warm lussekatt buns for breakfast. The buns, shaped like the number eight, are usually flavored with saffron and topped with raisins or nuts. Boys, called star boys, wear long white shirts and pointed hats. They help serve the buns. Children often go to school dressed in the costumes and serve the buns to their teachers.

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0909585.html

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