FESTIVALS ACROSS THE WORLD

Snake Festival - Every year on the first Thursday in May, the small village of Cocullo in Italy sees thousands of visitors. They are all arriving to see the annual Snake Festival. The festival is held on Saint Dominic’s Day. St Dominic lived in the town in the 11th century. At that time there were many snakes in the village and many people died of snakebite. Saint Dominic got rid of the snakes and since then they have started celebrating this event. For some weeks before the festival, people collect snakes and then, on St Dominic’s Day, they put all the snakes on a statue of St Dominic. At midday, they carry the statue and the snakes in a *procession through the village. At the front of the procession is a band playing music, and at the back are women in costumes who give sweets and bread shaped like snakes to the people who are watching. At the end of the procession, there are fireworks.

May Day Festival - The first of May is called May Day in Britain. This is a very old festival held to celebrate the first day of summer. Many towns and villages still hold traditional May Day celebrations. Some towns and villages decorate the streets and houses with flowers. In others, there is dancing, and the people put up a maypole. This is a tall pole with coloured ribbons hanging from the top. The dancers take a ribbon each and dance around the pole. As they dance, the ribbons make a colourful pattern around the maypole. It is also traditional to choose a May Queen and crown her. She wears a white dress and a crown of flowers and walks at the front of a procession through the streets. In another village, there is a ‘Cheese Rolling’ competition. Everyone goes to the top of a very steep hill. A big round cheese is rolled down the hill, and everyone tries to chase it. The winner gets free cheese for twenty years!

The Hong Kong Bun Festival - This festival is held on the island on Cheung Chau in Hong Kong in early May every year, around the time of Buddha’s birthday. The festival celebrates the god Pak Tai, who drove pirates and illness away from the island. In the festival, the islanders pray for safety from pirates and illness. The festival lasts for seven days. For three of those days, everyone on the island is vegetarian. There is a procession through the village with lion dances, dragon dances and musicians. In the procession, children in colourful costumes are carried high above people’s heads. The islanders make three 20-metre high bamboo towers and cover these with buns. At midnight on the last day, people light fires and then climb the towers to get the buns. They wear bags on their backs to collect the buns, and when they come down from the towers, they give them to everyone who is watching. Then everyone celebrates with fireworks.

*procession: a line of people or vehicles that moves forward slowly as part of a ceremony or public event