Holi the most exciting and fun festival celebrated in India marks the victory of good over evil and is a beautiful festival of divine love and colors. It is celebrated every year at the end of winter in the Hindu month of Phalguna on the last full moon day (Purnima).
But have this thought ever crossed your mind if Holi resemble any other festivals?
Then here’s the answer for your curiosity, YES! There are many festivals celebrated around the world which are very similar to Holi.
Let’s dig a little deep into these five festivals that can be considered as siblings of Holi…
1. La Tomatina :
La Tomatina also known as the Tomato Battle held every year on the last Wednesday of August is a extremely popular Spanish festival celebrated in the Valencian town of Buñol, Spain.
La Tomatina , Spanish Holi but instead of throwing colors you have to throw tomatoes at each other. This festival gain popularity in India after the release of the Movie, Zindagi na Milegi Dobara.
A festive full of whoopee and excitement is celebrated to promote happiness and entertainment among citizens. La Tomatina a festival cum fight with tomatoes, where people dive into ocean of tomatoes to enjoy the best fun moments of their life.
The festival starts a week prior to the official day and there are plenty of streets partying. The best part of the festival is the tomato fight which takes place between 11am and 1pm on that day.
There is no history or tales behind the emergence of La Tomatina but this tradition has been there in Spain since 1944 or 1945. The summer festival has gain popularity from a few years as more and more people are participating in the events. Trucks and trucks full of tomatoes move around central area of the town, every little street are seen to be enjoying the festival.
2. The Orange Battle In Italy:
One more battle but this not with colors or tomatoes but with oranges!
Yes you read it right, the largest food fight celebrated in the Northern Italian city of Ivrea, the battle of oranges is just like Holi too but with only orange color. Held every year in February this battle juices about 400 tones of oranges.
A messy but lively festival where people throw oranges at each other in their particular organized groups. The town residents are divided into nine teams for this battle. Celebrated in the beautiful lake town of Italy this orange battle is worth a fight.
The first orange battle was celebrated back in 1808. Digging a little deep into the history behind this festival, it is said that during the 12th century the town by overpowered and ruled by a cruel man who forced himself onto the village’s brides on the night they were married. But one day finally a bride took a brave step and managed to cut off his head, the town supported that women and fought back with the ruler’s army and won the battle.
To celebrate this great victory every year this battle is enacted but with oranges, the following nine teams re-enact the battle by throwing oranges at each other.
3. Chinchilla Watermelon Festival:
Enough with tomatoes and oranges now it’s time for something much bigger and exciting, how about a watermelon festival?
Sounds a bit astounding yet funny at the same time. A festival similar to Holi celebrated every year in Chinchilla, a town in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia.
The Melon Capital of Australia celebrates this amazing festival every second year in February. The festival was first observed in 1994 with an aim to bring more and more foreigners to the town.
The all beer and skittles festive is full of melon theme events like Melon Bulls eye, Melon Skiing, Melon Chariot, Melon Bungee, Melon Ironman, a pip spitting competition, and melon eating races and the most thrilling one is melon head smashing cracking event where participant has to open as many watermelons as possible using only the head.
4. Boryeoung Mud Festival:
This time it’s nothing about fruits or colors but this one is more thrilling than that, a mud festival! Diving deep into mud to relax your mind and soul.
As exciting as it sounds the festival is not just for fun but for skin benefits too. The rich mud is good for slowing skin ageing, exfoliating, rejuvenating and more. Celebrated every year in Boryeong, a town around 200 km south of Seoul, South Korea. The mud fest include mud massages, mud baths, mud air-bounce, mud fall adventures, mud swimming and many more fun events.
This dirty yet beautiful summer festival was first held in July 1998 which lasted for four days and included 16 exciting programmes.
There is no deep history behind this festival, the reason behind the mud festival was simply for promoting the city’s mud business and to aware them about the qualities of Boryeong’s mud.
With passing years mud festival turned out to be one of the world’s most famous thrilling fest and attracted millions of visitors to Boryeoung. Now each year many Koreans as well as foreigners attend this festival with full zeal and fire.
The Boryeoung mud festival introduced to world the enchanting Daecheon Beach, where mud are extremely rich in minerals and are used in the manufacture of cosmetics.
5. Haro Wine Festival:
A hot festival in summertime is all you need to kill your boredom fever. The haro wine festival is celebrated every year on June 29, Saint Peters Day in the town of Haro, Spain (in the La Rioja region of Northern Spain).
This Spanish festival is nothing but crazy, people toss and throw wine on each other until everyone from head to toe is left completely soaked in wine and colored purple.
The Haro wine festival is considered a “Festival of International Tourist Interest” and, therefore, is very tourist friendly. This battle of wine is celebrated to attract tourists from all around the world.
The festive attendees gather at the Chapel of San Felices de Bilibio where the wine battle takes place. The participants throw wine at each other using boots, bottles, water pistols, or anything that can contain liquid.
