Mexico has great festivals. Some of the world famous Mexican festivals are: Day of the Dead (celebrated on 1st and 2nd of November) Night of the Radishes (celebratedon December 23rd) Night of the Witches I have bit witnessed these festivals live, but I will surely participate in these festivals when I make to Mexico some day.
One of my favorite Mexican festivals is Day of the Dead and of course Cinco de Mayo. This last one is hugely celebrated by Mexican Americans and it is very similar to St Patrick’s Day. Anyone who loves Mexican culture will fall in love with their unique festive, flavorful and colorful festivals.
I am only familiar with Cinco de Mayo and Day of the Dead. The latter has similarities to one of our holidays here in my country, All Saint's day and All Soul's Day. They are celebrated on the 1st and 2nd days of November respectively. Although here, the celebration is more solemn, and less colorful than Day of the Dead.
I've heard of all three, but I've been able to participate in any of them. Sadly. Because I'm quite the morbid soul, the Day of the Dead celebration screams at me to experience it. As for Night of the Radishes, I would feel like I'm in a storybook. I love the whimsical traditions we can find around the world. However, Mexico seems to have the fairytale-like ones out there. I mean, who doesn't want to make radish-men and women? It's looks like a fun time. Now I feel like carving radishes...
Isn't Day of the Dead actually the original Halloween? I know that Halloween also used to be called the night of the dead, I guess that is just the way in which Americans updated the name to their culture. Can anybody elaborate about "the Night of the Witches" as I've found this name in other cultures as well for example, in my culture, "the night of the witches" is that period of night between 3 and 3:33 AM, when the night's the darker, old people used to say that the evil gather its forces around this period of the day.
From what I see in movies and documentaries, Mexican festivals are ever filled with pomp and color. They last all night long and sometimes take a whole weekend. Participating in one of these colorful festivals is truly an experience of a lifetime.
We are now celebrating Halloween which is not a tradition here. But in our village, there are children who go on trick-or-treating which is obviously for the Halloween. But our traditional occasion is like in Mexico which is also the Day of the Dead that we call All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2. However, only November 1 is declared a holiday here although in the provinces, November 2 is observed more when people go to cemetery to visit the tomb of their dead relatives. I guess we have the same tradition with Mexico.
I've only heard of Cinco de Mayo and even that, I'm not really familiar with. But I love going to festivals in different countries so maybe I'll do some research and see what these festivals are about. They sound very interesting and it'll probably be different than all the festivals I've been to.
