Twists of fete: Around the world in unusual festivals

For at least 3.500 years, Indians have celebrated the rice harvest with a festival of renewal.

The festival of lamps, light and new beginnings is celebrated from the first new moon day of the month of Kartika (this generally falls in October or November, in the Gregorian calendar), and marks the beginning of a new harvest year.

The earliest records of it date to the 3rd century CE, with Sanskrit texts of the time mentioning a festival then called Yaksharatri or Night of the Yakshas. Interestingly, it was celebrated with lamps, gambling, and the worship of Kubera, lord of the yakshas and god of wealth.

By the 6th century, the festival was featuring in Sanskrit plays.

By the 11th century, travellers to India such as the Iranian scholar and traveller Al-Biruni were writing of a festival in the month of Kartika, describing lamp-lighting, gifting and homes adorned with rows of lamps.

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* c. 3000 BCE: THEYYAM ANCESTRAL WORSHIP, INDIA

This festival has roots in the ancient tribal and Dravidian cultural practices of the Chalcolithic Age (named after the Ancient Greek words for “copper” and “stone”, this period extended from about 3000 to 1500 BCE).

Theyyam is considered one of the oldest living ritual traditions in the world.

It combines ancestor worship, fertility rites and myth, and is believed to have originated among indigenous tribes in the Malabar region of present-day Kerala.

By the 12th century, royal patronage had helped create a formal structure for the ritual dances, performed in elaborate costume.

There are now over 400 variants of Theyyam performed in Kerala and parts of Karnataka. Vibrant colours and trance-like movements typify the dance form. Performances are typically held overnight, from October to April (thus avoiding the monsoon), between dusk and dawn.

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* 3000 BCE: SED JUBILEE, EGYPT

This is probably the earliest recorded iteration of a jubilee.

The Sed was a feast held 30 years into a pharaoh’s rule, and every three years after.

Carvings and paintings in the Step Pyramid complex of Djoser, in Ṣaqqarah, paint an elaborate picture of the king presenting offerings to the gods before being anointed with a white crown representing Upper Egypt, and a red crown for Lower Egypt, signifying also the unification of the two regions.

Wearing a costume something like a kilt, and an animal tail, the king was then carried in a great procession, to be presented at the temples of deities across the region.

Fast-forward to the Opet festival, dated to at least 1500 BCE, and the bond between the pharaoh and the gods had been solidified.

A procession by boat, down the Nile, took the king and an idol of Amun-Re, the king of gods, separately to a temple in Luxor. There, the pharaoh was “wedded” to the deity, reinstating his claim as intermediary between all deities and Egypt. Depictions of the festival indicate the procession was accompanied, on its journeys to and fro, by singers, musicians and acrobats.

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* 1600 BCE: THE SPRING FESTIVAL,CHINA

The Spring Festival (now better known as the Chinese New Year) dates to at least the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE).

It began as a new year celebration involving sacrifices to honour the gods and ancestors, and pray for a good sowing season and harvest in the year ahead.

The festivities began with rituals to send the kitchen god Zao Jun to heaven as emissary, with rice wine and sacrificial offerings of lamb. Today, the festival is celebrated over 15 days, with firecrackers, lanterns, incense and the worship of household deities, to ward off evil spirits and pray for good fortune in the coming year.

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* 665 BCE: GYMNOPAEDIA VOCAL OLYMPICS, SPARTA

A sort of naked vocal Olympics, this was an annual festival to honour Apollo, god of music, poetry and the arts; Artemis, goddess of the hunt; and Leto, goddess of motherhood.

It consisted of war dances and choral singing in teams or age cohorts, with each group striving to outdo the others in lyricism, rhythm and physical grace.

The festival is thought to have lasted for 10 days.

Traders, travellers and people from nearby regions gathered to watch the festivities, which unfolded in Sparta’s central agora or marketplace. The celebration served as a rite of passage for young Spartans. underlining the important of discipline and unity, in a highly militarised society.

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* 250 CE: THE O-HARAE CLEANSING RITES, JAPAN

For centuries, periods of distress in Japan, such as epidemics, earthquakes and natural disasters, have been marked by purification rituals involving salt, water and fire.

One of the oldest known ones, O-harae, has been traced to the Kofun period (250-538 CE). These rites were conducted twice a year, or more often, as needed, in attempts to purge the country of disease or ill luck.

By the 9th century CE, an epidemic of the plague had Kyoto in its grip, and a lavish new ritual was born.

Still celebrated in July in that province, Gion Matsuri was an attempt to appease vengeful spirits and stop the spread of this disease. This purification ritual involved crafting 66 stylised battle-axes representing Japan’s provinces, which were then paraded through the city on palanquins and eventually deposited at the sacred Yasaka Shrine.

The festival is still celebrated every July. One key difference: the palanquins have evolved into motorised festival floats.

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* 1400 CE: INTI RAYMI, A CELEBRATION OF THE SUN, PERU

Among the Inca, the sun god Inti is responsible for warmth, light, growth and life.

This deity is honoured in a nine-day festival in June that involves colourful costumes, traditional dance forms and rituals animal sacrifices.

The Spring festival is believed to date to the Inca emperor Pachacutec (1438-1471 CE). It is now celebrated as the Inca new year.

Across parts of Peru and Ecuador, indigenous peoples visit rivers and springs for a ceremonial bath marked by songs and revelry. Villagers eat foods made only of maize, say prayers of thanks for the recent harvest, and pray for a good harvest in the year to come.