How do you celebrate festivals? Is it a bonding moment for you?

i Sree, In the province we really prepared for any festivals. We prepare the house, cook several dishes and invite our friends and relatives to celebrate with us. But since i now in the city, we seldom celebrate festivals. we only go to church for thanksgiving!

Hi Sree, the most important festival cerebrated in the Chinese society here is the grand Chinese new year. It's the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar. This festival is celebrated from the new year eve til the 15th day. Nowadays people are busy with their daily life which is very much from earlier. Therefore it's simplified a lot. New year eve is the family reunion day. Chines people regard this as the grandest day of Chinese New Year. All the family members try their best to get back to their home town from all over the place where they study or working. All the Chinese family have their respective reunion dinner either in their own house or in the restaurant. It's so nice to have this great reunion day to provide the opportunity to let all the family members to meet one another happily once in a year. This kids go to bed late in the wee hours as we believe this will bring fortune to the elderly and prolong the life of the life of the parents as well. We take morning bath and put on new clothes to welcome the festival. Married people will give red packet with money in it to the single young and kids. Many people go to worship in the temple and make wishes. It's also a good day for people to visit and to entertain relative friends. The most happy people are kids as they can receive many red packets from elderly. Yeah, many thing have changed during this modern day, and people will go back to work as usual beginning from the third day. And this depends on how long their leave or vacation is. The 6th day is man-day. Chines believe that this is the birthday of all human. Fish is the essential dish to take in this day. We usually celebrate this day eating tiny pieces of fresh flesh of fish mixed with colorful ingredients of vegetable, etc. It's believed that celebrating in this way will bring health and wealth to us The 15th day and also the last day of the festival is our valentine day. Single females throw oranges with phone no on it in the water where there is ceremony taking place there. Unmarried men can fish up the fruit and contact the girl via phone number. Hopefully they don't meet the wrong person Besides there are hundreds of interesting riddles displayed on the beautiful lanterns for people to guess. Prices will given to the persons who have got the right answers. Really interesting eh.....Some temples and societies here hold this ceremony annually. Take care dear and happy posting

Hi friend. My religion does not celebrate any festival about god and godessed but there in Baguio City there is the so called flower festival that I so enjoy.It has nothing to do with religion but everything about flowers. That place is 8 hour drive from my place but every year I am making it a point to go there with my family to see that flower festival where different flowers are being paraded on the streets. I do love flowers and it delights me to see different kinds of flowers of various colors and some of them I don't even know the names but they are really very beautiful.

This is a very complicated question for me as I am a Christian and my hubby is a Hindu and being born in Mumbai brought up in a Half Malyali half Sardari locality I was used to celebrating almost all the festivals and that also with the same enthusiam. The only place that I have not visited is the mosque. Festivals where not only bonding with dear and dear ones but also with our neighbours and friends. Oh how I miss those days. But now that I am in my mid thirties I still would love to celebrate it the way I used to but then nowadays you do not even know who is your neighbour nowadays as people have become so distant from each other and visiting near and dear ones is become scarce as we stay in different states and taking time out the hectic schedule is become very difficult. I wish it changes atleast for the generation after us

Hi Sree I think all hindus observe the festivals like you, i am from Orissa, but my fore fathers came here from Chattisgarh, so we observe festivals of both states. my city has so many temples, the most famous is Samlesari temple, my city is named based on name of this goddess..our main festival is Diwali and Dussera, but every month we have this and that.. This makes the hindus unique.. Thank you so much for this nice discussion, cheers God bless you. Prof

Celebrating festivals is really a bonding for moment for us. Relatives from other places came home to celebrate and have bonding with us. Its fun because we shared lots of experiences that took during the time when we're apart. Well, of course who's gonna miss the foods, its always present. Diets where set aside, eat well, eat more, have fun. But the main attraction of it is to praise God and thank Him for the blessings that we received.

i saw the photos celebrating vishu which sure is a splendid sight.for us,christmas is the main festival,during that time we also have oue chruch camp which is followed by fasting,prayer and feeasts.

hi sreekala It is interesting to me to read about your various festivals and try to figure out in comparison what we have as so called festivals here in the United States. For us Christians I think we would call Christmas,celebrating the birth of Christ and Easter celebrating his resurrection of Christ true celebrations. Also the fourth of July is our sort of American festival as we celebrate the birth of our country The United States of America. I envy you have such wonderful times at your festivals.Sadly our celebration of Christs birth has been replaced in so many peoples minds with the fictitious Santa Claus and a bunch of gifts. Also we have Thanksgiving in November as a day to give thanks for all that we have. we have special meals like we do at Christmas and Easter too. New Years Eve marks a celebration of a brand new year and we have special meals then too.these holidays are special times for bonding with friends and families, and sharing good food. Happy Holidays to you Sreekala.

Hi sree, as u celebrate the visu as south indian new year and we too celebrate it as bihu. We have three bihus. The best two are rangali and bhogali. We prepare various cakes, sweets, snacks for it. It is something special for us. U may give a look on my photo titled 'bihu dance'. Thanks.

hell0 there! the people in my country celebrate teh festivals here in a different way according to that in which part ofthe country they are- for an example people who live in the Southern part of the country celebrate some festivals with more dances, music and fun, in some other regions they celebrate it with more food and drinks, but in every part people wear some traditional clothes, which are actually traditional only for that region. So you ask how I celebrate those festivals- well it really depends on that, what efstival it is exactly. if we celebrate Easter, the first that we do is to paint the eggs( here in my country it is a tradition to paint eggs for Easter and we must do it on the Thursday or Sunday before Easter, because of the tradition. the wemon and the children take part in this innitiative and it is reall fun. the grandmother paint the first egg in red, then put some red color on the foreheads of the children. we paint the eggs in different colors and put different shapes on them. then on Easter the whole family gather together around the table, we "fight" with eggs to see which eggs will be the "winner"- the hardest one :) I really love that holiday very much... The Christmas holidays we celebrate again all together, with only one exception- New year we celebrate with family and friends too :) the preparation is the most excited moment for me, because everyone is running in and out, everybody is searching for something, someone else decorates the rooms, my mom for example is looking for some good recipe, me and my sister decorate the Christmas tree and my father cooks something. it is such an euphory! then it comes the moment( I mean New YEar), everything is ready and we sit on the table, all the dishes are there, we switch the TV on and watch the new year's shows, which are something very funny. we talk about many things, about the past year and what we are going to do in the new one. we also eat alot :) This is how we actually celebrate some of those holidays, and I think that your discussion is really a great one, because we can learn a lot

We do celebrate feasts of our Patron Saints in the Philippines since we are largely a christian country, and during these festivities there are carnivals at the plaza's, special programs and processions and while having these families prepare foods andspecial dishes for friends and family who will visit during these occasions.