The Travel Blog by TravelPod

TravelPod bloggers love to experience local culture and flavour everywhere they go. One of the best ways to do this is to attend a festival. Here are some of the most amazing festivals attended by our travelers that I noticed recently:

Semana Santa in Guatemala

Muddyfeet witnessed the Crucifixion reenactment

Semana Santa is a week long festival honoring of the death of Christ including many, many processions covered in the mist of frankincense and myrrh, candy stands, mournful music and the usual nightly generator to add lights to it all. There is many a grander than life sized Christ carrying the cross as well as a Christ with big purple pinkish wings. Friday and Saturday are particularly festive with entire reenactments of the stations of the cross to the mysterious cave event.  (in some towns they actually nail a real person to a cross, considered quite an honored position) Almost kind of like those Civil War reenactments but more religious (and more bloody sometimes). - Muddyfeet

Shandur Pass Polo Tournament in Pakistan

Markwilliams84 at a polo tournament in the mountains

A group of us who had all met along different points of out trips had all organized to meet at the famous Shandur Pass which is at an altitude of 3,810 meters and big enough to have a couple of lakes. It’s home to the highest Polo ground in the world where the best players from the surrounding valleys trek up their for a yearly competition and festivities! – Markwilliams84

Nadaam Festival in Mongolia

Wareameye participated in the Mongolian national festival

This is the day we have been waiting for-the opening ceremonies of the Mongolian National Festival: Naadam … The ceremony starts promptly with the entry of the Festival standards into the arena and their formal placement by the stage from which the President is to address the crowd. I cannot comment on the speech as it is all in Mongolian, but our guide tells us it is the customary greetings and welcome, punctuated by much applause from the crowd. – Wareameye

Losar Tibetan New Year in Tibet

Mrconfused encountered a religious procession during Tibet's new year celebrations

The ceremony began with a procession around the village and up the hillside beyond of the yellow coxcomb-hatted monks carrying some icon, accompanied by horns and cymbals, and villagers scattering masses of Buddhist confetti and letting off firecrackers almost continuously for an hour and a half. Any path the procession followed ended thick with confetti and firecracker shells. - Mrconfused

Calgary Stampede in Canada

Jta at the bareback riding competition

Also worth a mention is the Calgary Stampede a huge 10 day outdoor rodeo event. There aren’t many places in the world you can walk around in a cowboy hat and not get some funny looks! The rodeo itself was pretty gripping to watch, these cowboys are seriously tough! – Jta

Pushkar Camel Festival in India

Heatherandrew at the Pushkar Camel Festival

For the weekend Andrew and I with nine other friends headed out on a Friday to Pushkar, and the largest mammal fair in the world.  That’s right, the annual Pushkar camel festival.  They estimate that 25,000 camels are traded each year. – Heatherandrew

Inti Raymi in Peru

Nybridge at Inti Raymi in Peru

Once the centre of the Incan Empire, with its four roads radiating to the corners of the Incan world, Cusco was again charging up for the spectacular Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun) … The drumbeats….the parade started at around 10am with numero uno current Inca dudes at point, followed by an extensive procession of brightly costumed peoples from surrounding towns and villages. Some time later…at approx 2300hrs, numero 214 brought up the rear. This was the preliminary for the following day whereby the central plaza was awash with ancient ritual as the reenactment of the great Inti Raymi commenced. – Nybridge