Traditions Around the World

Thanksgiving doesn’t always mean turkey, pilgrims, and seemingly endless football! The idea of
bursting cornucopias and celebrating the bounty of Mother Nature transcends borders and cultures
across the world. Although they spring from the same ideas, thanksgiving traditions around the
world bring unique ceremonies and stories that inspired the merrymaking to the table. In case you
want to add a few cultural experiences to your adventure travel bucket list, here are some
thanksgiving and harvest festivals around the world each complete with their own way of showing
and giving their thanks!

The Kadazan Festival - Malaysia

Malaysians believe that “without rice there is no life.” The Kadazan Festival, celebrated in May,
worships rice as an extension of the Creator, and thus, the source of thriving life and existence on
Earth. Malaysians celebrate the Creator, Bambaazon, for his generosity in facilitating life on Earth. In
the time of creation, the story states that their God sacrificed his daughter in order to save the
people who would otherwise suffer from great famine. He buried parts of her across the land, and
her body became the seed of the rice paddy. Still today, the people of Malaysia believe the grain
holds the spirit of life and creation. With a rather dark origin to such a bright festival filled with rice
wine, buffalo races, and agricultural shows, the Kadazan Festival is a beautiful day of giving thanks to
the Creator who made the people’s most-prized staple of life.

Chuseok Harvest Festival – Korea

The Chuseok Harvest Festival, celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, emphasizes
respect and commemoration of elders and ancestral roots. Aside from the usual thanksgiving
traditions (aka feasting with friends and family), families return to their ancestor’s hometowns and
hold memorials at relative’s grave sites. Along with Songp’yon (traditional rice cakes), toran-t’ang
(taro soup), and song-i (mushrooms), people celebrate with dishes made from the freshly harvested
rice. Celebratory friend and family activities include archery, musical competitions, and singing folk
music. While this is a holiday to honor family ancestors, Chuseok is a special time for spreading

Festival of the Yams – Ghana

Homowo is an African festival dedicated to the hopefulness that the crops will be plentiful for the
coming year and no one will experience famine. Celebrated in August or September, the Festival of
the Yams is centered around the new yam harvest. Families are brought together, thrilled and
hopeful (and slightly competitive!) to be the group with the largest crop. Everyone in the village
comes together and shares their bounty, and yams are the prized dish out of all the harvested
vegetables! During this harvest festival, the villages rejoice by dancing and singing with animal
masks, acknowledging the end of the rainy season and desiring a fruitful harvest to last well into the
new year.

Erntedankfest – Germany

Erntedankfest, the “Thanksgiving Day” in Germany, is a religiously dominated celebration where the
churches run the show! Both Catholics and Protestants celebrate and attend church services during
this thanksgiving celebration, which falls on the first Sunday in October. Like most thanksgiving
traditions, Erntedankfest is centered on giving thanks for the year’s harvest and grain. In one of the
multiple church services throughout the day, giant woven baskets filled with fruits, grains, and
vegetables are carried to the church, blessed, and then distributed to the poor. After more church
services in the middle of the day, there are laternenumzüge (lantern parades), primarily for the
children, hosted in the evenings. The celebratory food is much the same as Thanksgiving Day food
consumed in America; however, the Germans have mohnstriezel, sweet bread sprinkled with poppy
seed, for a delicious Erntedankfest treat!

Harvest Moon Festival / Mid-Autumn Festival – China

When the moon is the brightest and the fullest, this three-day celebration takes place in the middle
of the autumn season. Also known as the Moon Festival, this celebration is a descendent from the
original Chinese customs of moon-sacrificial ceremonies, where a series of prayers, poems, and
offerings were burned as offerings. Nowadays, the people of modern China are much more
accustomed to “appreciating the moon,” which is the practice of gathering around a table, talking,
and eating the offerings from the sacrificial ceremony. Reflecting on the importance of togetherness,
families eat moon cakes (round, semi-sweet pastries) and the children dance and play with festival
lanterns.

Sukkot – Israel

This biblical holiday, celebrated on the 15th day of Tishrei (between late September and late
October), is a time where Jewish people reflect on the struggle of Israelites during their 40-year
travel through the desert after the exodus from slavery in Egypt. Seven days long, Sukkot in Israel is
packed full with joyous celebrations, and is referred to in Jewish literature as the “Season of our
Rejoicing.” The word sukkot means “booths,” which refers to the name of the temporary dwellings
celebrators live in to remember the “period of wandering.” However, the holiday also holds
agricultural meaning and celebrates the annual harvest that provides sustenance for all the people.

Pongal – India

A time for giving thanks to nature, Pongal, the Indian Harvest festival, is a four-day long celebration
held in mid-January in Southern India, and it contains plenty of rice, sugarcane, and turmeric! When
you break it down, the first day is the time for paying homage to Lord Indra, the ruler of clouds who
provides the rain. People celebrate his generosity in providing water for their crops and bringing
prosperity to all. The second day is the performance of puja (the ceremonial act of worship), where
rice is boiled in milk and then symbolically offered to the Sun God. Sugarcane, coconut, and bananas
are offered in a small dish, and all participants are clothed in traditional dress.

The third day, noted as Mattu Pongal, is the day for cows. In representation of the legend of Shiva
and Basava, his bull, the cows are adorned in decorations, beads, corn, and flowers and paraded
around the town. The jingling bells signal the time for celebrating, and the entire scene turns into
one giant party! The fourth and final day of Pongal requires the women of the house to wash a
turmeric leaf, lay it on the ground, and place Pongal rice around it, asking that the house and their
brothers always prosper. Consider venturing to India so you can experience this festival first-hand!

Harvest festivals around the world are bounteous in giving thanks for the natural gifts given by
nature and the gods. They bring people together, give cultures reason to celebrate, and provide a
time for all people to reflect back on the wonderful disposition of their culture’s prosperity for the
year.
 The tribal chief chooses the best dance crew, and even
joins in the dancing himself. Once he drinks the blood of a
cow, symbolizing the year’s first harvest, the entire
community begins enjoying a fantastic feast. A N C I E N T
HISTORY OF THANKSGIV ING
1. The idea of an annual harvest celebration also dates back to
ancient Greece. The 3-day autumn festival known
as Thesmophoria was celebrated to honor the Goddess Demeter,
the deity of food grains.

Fertile married women would build a home for Demeter to stay in

the first day, purified their bodies and souls by keeping a fast on the
second day in her honor, and on the third day prepared a great
feast including seasonal fruits, plump pigs, corn delicacies and
yummy cakes.

2. The cornucopia symbol dates back to the ancient Greeks and

Romans. The idea of a horn-shaped basket filled with fruit, flowers
and other goodies comes from the Latin cornu copiae, which
literally means “horn of plenty.”

3. In Greek mythology, the cornucopia was an enchanted severed

goat’s horn, created by Zeus to produce a never-ending supply of
whatever the owner desires. Think of it as an unsexy genie, without
the whole “3 Wishes” limitations.

4. The given name of the turkey comes from the Middle Eastern
country, from which they were imported to America. But
archaeological evidence shows that these birds roamed in the
Americas some 10 million years ago.

Known in their native language as huexoloti, wild turkey was an

important food source for the Aztecs. Their domesticated cousins
became popular among the early English settlers in part due to their
appetite for the pests that preyed on tobacco plants.
5. When the Spanish invaders took the bird back to market in
Spain, traders took the bird into what was then the world’s most
powerful empire, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). There, the bird was
bred to become more plump, like the turkey most of us eat on
Thanksgiving today.

AMERICAN THANKSGIVING HISTORY

6. Though the 1621 shindig between the Pilgrims and Native
Americans is widely accepted as “the first Thanksgiving,” some
historians believe that the first American Thanksgiving took place
upon Juan Ponce De Leon’s landing in Florida in 1513, or Francisco
Vásquez de Coronado’s service of Thanksgiving in the Texas
Panhandle in 1541.

There are also two claims re: Thanksgiving observances taking

place in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and 1610.
7. What most people think of as “the first Thanksgiving”– the famed
1621 meal between the British settlers and the indigenous
Wampanoag– was actually a three-day celebration. And while
turkey may have been among the many dishes on the menu, it was
not the centerpiece of the meal.

The hospitable natives welcomed the English immigrants with

venison (five deer in total), corn, and oysters, which were staples of
the Wampanoag diet.

8. America’s first President, George Washington, revived the

holiday tradition in America by designating special days for a
national Thanksgiving.

9. As Revolutionary War veterans died off, the Thanksgiving

tradition was lost in America for a number of years until President
Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, to be
held the last Thursday in November, in 1863 (during the height of
the Civil War).

10. For almost 80 years Thanksgiving was simply a tradition in the

United States. It officially became a national holiday in 1941,
when the U.S. Congress passed legislation signed by President
Franklin Roosevelt.
 FUN FACTS ABOUT THAN KSGIVING
TRADITIONS
11. Writer/editor Sarah Joseph Hale is best known as the composer
of the classic children’s song “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” But she
should also be known as the woman who saved Thanksgiving!

Hale was instrumental in convincing Lincoln to declare

Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863. She wrote numerous
articles and personal letters to the President about the significance
of the holiday.

12. Pilgrims are typically portrayed in stark black and white clothing,
with big buckles and hats. But buckles didn’t come into fashion until
the late 17th century, and pilgrims primarily wore black-and-white
clothes on Sunday.
13. In reality, pilgrim women dressed in red, green, brown, violet,
blue or gray, while men wore white, beige, black, green and brown.

14. One of the strangest Thanksgiving traditions is the presidential

pardon of one fortunate fowl. President George H.W. Bush was the
first to do so in 1989, and the annual custom is still upheld today.

Even weirder is the adventures the pardoned turkeys have had: The
2005 and 2009 turkeys served as grand marshal in the annual
Thanksgiving Dad parades at Disneyland and Walt Disney World,
while the 2010 to 2013 turkeys got a vacation to George
Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate (now a living history museum)!

15. Here’s a fun Thanksgiving fact: Did you know that a holiday-
related screw-up led to the creation of the first TV dinners? Back in
1953, an unnamed employee of Swanson accidentally ordered 260
TONS of turkey– much more than was needed for the Thanksgiving
rush.

But savvy sales rep Gerry Thomas suggested filling 5,000

aluminum trays with turkey, dressing, gravy, peas, and sweet
potatoes to create an easy-to-heat meal. The first TV dinners cost
just 98 cents, and sold over 10 million in the first year!
Paddington Bear at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, NYC by Bret Love & Mary Gabbett
MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE
HISTORY
16. The annual holiday event many of us grew up watching every
Thanksgiving morning was originally known as the Macy’s
Christmas Parade.

It debuted in 1924 and was essentially a promotional gimmick to

celebrate the expansion of the retail giant’s flagship store in
Manhattan. Covering an entire city block on 34th Street, between
6th and 7th Avenue, it became the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest
Store.” It was finally surpassed in size in 2009 by Shinsegae in
Busan, Korea.

17. The first Thanksgiving Day Parade was very small,

comparatively speaking. There were no character balloons, only a
few floats, and most of the participants were Macy’s employees.
But, according to a story in the New York Times, there were
animals from the Central Park Zoo: “There were also bears,
elephants, donkeys and bands, making the procession resemble a
circus parade.”

18. If you’re among the approximately 44 million people who love

watching the Macy’s Parade on TV every year now, thank Tony
Sarg. The children’s book illustrator and puppeteer designed the
first giant hot air balloons used in the 1927 Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade, which included a “human behemoth,” dinosaur,
dachshund, and Felix The Cat.

He also created the first mechanically animated Christmas window

displays that grace Macy’s storefront throughout the holiday
season.

19. Not everyone loved the Macy’s parade in those early days. An
organization known as the Allied Patriotic Societies protested,
arguing that the event was overly commercial and would interfere
with Thanksgiving Day worship.

The association went to the NYC police commissioner and asked

him to revoke the parade permit, but failed. The parade was held
annually every year until World War II, when it was cancelled from
1942 to 1944 due to helium and rubber shortages in the US.

20. For several years, Macy’s simply released the balloons (which
now cost $190,000 to create and $90,000 a year to maintain) into
the air after the parade ended. Starting in 1928, there was a race to
recover them because the company offered a $100 reward.

Tug of war fights broke out (the first Black Friday?), and the practice
was ended in 1932 after a student pilot nearly crashed her plane in
an effort to retrieve a balloon in mid-air.
 THANKSGIVING TRADITI ONS AROUND
THE WORLD

Baffin Island via pixabay

C AN ADI AN TH ANKSGIVING

21. Canada’s first Thanksgiving (celebrated the second Monday in

October) can be traced back to 1578, when explorer Martin
Frobisher– who had been trying to find a northern passage to the
Pacific Ocean– held a celebration on Baffin Island (present-day
Nunavut) to give thanks to God for surviving the long journey from
England through storms and icebergs.

GERM AN TH ANKSGIVING

22. Germany’s early October festival is called Erntedankfest, or the

Harvest Thanksgiving Festival. The celebration has a religious
component, but, like its American counterpart, includes substantial
harvest dinners and parades.
The Bavarian beer festival, Oktoberfest, generally takes place close
to Erntedankfest. Hmm… maybe combining Oktoberfest and
Thanksgiving in the US wouldn’t be such a bad idea!

GRENADA THANKSGIVING

23. Observed on October 25 on the Caribbean island nation of

Grenada, the national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day is
completely unrelated to the traditional American celebration.

Instead, the holiday commemorates the anniversary of the U.S.-led

invasion of the island in 1983, which was launched in response to
the deposition and execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice
Bishop.

J AP ANESE TH ANKSGIVING

24. Officially known as Labor Thanksgiving Day,

this Japanese national holiday dates back to the time of Emperor
Jimmu, who reigned over the country from 660-585 BCE. The
modern version was established in 1948, after the end of World
War II.

Celebrated annually on November 23, the holiday commemorates

labor, production, and giving thanks. It’s also considered a time for
thinking about the environment, human rights, and peace.

Events such as the Nagano Labor Festival are held throughout the
country, and school kids often draw pictures as gifts for local police
stations.

LIBERIAN THANKSGIVIN G

25. Thanksgiving in Liberia is traditionally observed on the first

Thursday in November. The holiday started in 1820, when formerly
enslaved Africans from America started colonizing the West African
country.
But their Thanksgiving menu is different, focusing on flavors
endemic to the region. Instead of turkey and stuffing, Liberians love
dishes such as mashed cassavas, green bean casserole, and
roasted chicken.

Sometimes they’ll add a little heat to their dishes, using cayenne

pepper and other intense spices.

HARVEST FESTIVALS AROUND THE

WORLD
As we mentioned in our section on ancient Thanksgiving history,
harvest celebrations date back to ancient Greece.

And while Thanksgiving is easily the most well-known of these in

North America, there are countless other harvest festivals around
the world today.
Here are a few fascinating harvest festival facts you might not
know:

ARGENTINA (FIESTA NACIONAL DE LA

VENDIMIA)

26. Argentina’s wine is world renowned for its terroir, so perhaps it’s
no surprise that this “Grape Harvest Festival” is the most popular
celebration in the Mendoza province.

The Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, which lasts for 10 days in the

first week of March, is a celebration of wine, winemakers, and wine
culture.

Dating back to the 17th century, with the first official celebration
held in 1936, the festival features nightly parades, hundreds of
performers, the selection of a National Vendimia Queen, and a
huge fireworks display.
Moon Cakes via pixabay
CHINA (CHUNG CH’UI)

27. Chung Ch’ui is a 3-day harvest festival in China, which is

celebrated on the full moon day of the 8th Chinese month and was
believed to be the birthday of the moon.

The culinary specialty of the festival is round, yellow “moon cakes”

(usually made with an image of a rabbit on them), and the Chung
Ch’ui feast features roasted pigs and the first fruits of the harvest.

Chinese legend holds that anyone who sees flowers falling from the
moon on this day will be blessed with a good fortune.
 GEORGIA (RTVELI)

28. Another wine-themed celebration, this European harvest holiday

dates back to ancient times, with roots in mid-Autumn festivals of
abundance.

Today Rtveli is celebrated for several days in late September in the

country’s eastern region, and in mid-October in the west.

Rural people will usually start working very early in the morning to
complete their chores, then end each day with a grand feast
accompanied by traditional folk music.
Sweet Pongal by VSharmilee – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
SOUTHERN INDIA (PONGAL)

29. Designed to give thanks to nature for its beauty and bounty, this
4-day harvest festival is one of Southern India’s most important
Hindu celebrations of the year.

Pongal dates back several centuries, with people celebrating cattle,

family, and the various Hindu gods.

The festival’s third day is for feasting on a meal that usually

includes jaggery (dark brown sugar made from the evaporated sap
of a palm tree), lentils, and rice.

The holiday’s traditional dessert– made with rice, milk, and jaggery–
is also called Pongal.
 B ALI, INDONESI A (RIC E HARVEST FESTIV AL)

30. Marking the end of the harvest season, the Rice Harvest
Festival is held in locations throughout Bali every year in May.

The celebration honors Dewi Sri, the goddess of fertility believed to

watch over Bali’s staple crop.

Villages are decorated with colorful flags, small dolls made from rice
stalks are created as offerings, and bamboo temples are erected in
the corners of rice fields.

The Negara Bull Races, in which water buffaloes race in ornately

decorated headdresses, marks the end of the festival in Perancak.
Sukkoth by By Zachi Evenor CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
ISRAEL (SUKKOTH)

31. Israel’s autumn harvest festival, Sukkoth, is also known as Hag

ha Succot (“The Feast of the Tabernacles”) and Hag ha Asif (“The
Feast of Ingathering”).

This festival, which lasts 8 days, reminds people of the hardships

suffered by Moses and the Israelites when they wandered in the
desert for 40 years.

Succots were makeshift huts or tents built of branches that

symbolized the tabernacles of their ancestors, and were used to
hang fruits such as apples, grapes and pomegranates.
 ITALY (OLIVAG ANDO)

32. Italy is the olive oil capital of the world, and the Trasimeno
region (approximately 15 miles west of Perugia) is said to be home
to the very best EVOO.

The two-day Olivagando Festival is held in Magione annually,

celebrating both the olive harvest and the feast of St. Clement.

Ranked among the Top 10 Harvest Festivals in the

World by National Geographic, it’s a celebration of the olive oil
industry, with growers, processors, and consumers all coming
together.

After a priest blesses the new oil of La Dolce Agogia (olives so fine
that none are exported), the community celebrates with a massive
medieval-style feast at its 12th century castle.
Korean dinner via pixabay
KOREA (CHU-SOK)

33. Korea’s Thanksgiving celebration, Chu-Sok (“fall evening”),

begins in August 14th and last 3 days.

This annual harvest festival is celebrated to honor elders: Families

visit the ancestral properties in their hometowns, and hold memorial
services at grave sites of their forefathers.

Afterwards, they have a special meal full of freshly harvested foods

to give thanks.
 by Zorba the
Geek / Just a sheaf of wheat
LITHUANIA (NUBAIGAI HARVEST FESTIVAL)

34. In Lithuania, the Nubaigai harvest festival tradition involves the

communal creation of a harvest “Boba” from the last sheaf of grain.
Decorated with ribbons and flowers to honor the goddess of the
harvest, the boba often looks like an old woman.

A second tradition is to make a wreath which is then carried on a

plate covered with a white linen cloth.
As the procession moves on, people who reaped the harvest sing
an old song that tells of how they rescued the crop from a huge
bison that tried to devour it.

NIGERIA (NEW Y AM FES TIV AL)

35. Known locally as Iwa ji (“new yam eating”), this celebration is

held by Nigeria’s agrarian Igbo people at the end of the rainy
season in early August.

Yam is by far the region’s most important crop, and the New Yam
Festival pays tribute to its annual harvest. The night before the
celebrations begin, Igbo families will traditionally eat or throw away
any old yams from the previous year’s crop.

The celebrations may last a day or a week, and include ceremonial

rights conducted by elders, cultural performances, fashion parades,
and more.
Meals consist only of yam-based dishes, with the freshest, tastiest
yams used to create them.

Street dancing -Kadayawan Festival celebration by GinaD CC BY-SA 3.0 , from Wikimedia
Commons
 PHILIPPINES (KADAYAWAN FESTI VAL )

36. Held in the Filipino city of Davao, the Kadayawan Festival is

named after a friendly local greeting (“Madayaw”), which can mean
valuable, superior, or beautiful.

Held every year in the third week of August, the week-long festival
celebrates life and gives thanks for the blessings of nature, cultural
wealth, and the bountiful harvest.

There are rituals to give thanks to divine protectors (including the

Supreme Being, Manama, and a moon deity named Bulan), music,
floral floats, street dancing competitions, and more.

Flower Festival, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal by Paul Mannix CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia
Commons
 PORTUGAL (MADEIRA FL OWER FESTIVAL)

37. Where most of the harvest festivals on this list celebrate foods,
this 2-week festival is all about the flowers of Spring.

Held every May in the southern city of Funchal, the Madeira Flower
Festival fills the air with fragrance and the streets with color.

The celebration begins on Saturday, when kids bring blossoms to

the Praça do Município and help create the colorful Muro da
Esperança (Wall of Hope).

Intricate flower carpets line the streets as decorated floats drive by

in Sunday’s Flower Parade, and there are competitions to find the
most artfully decorated shop windows as well.

Swazi Incwala Warrior by iulian circo CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
 SWAZILAND (INCWALA)

38. Incwala is another fruity festival, this one celebrating the harvest
of Swaziland’s first fruits of the season. But this one’s not new: It
actually dates back to the ancient tribal era, when Swaziland was
still considered part of South Africa.

Arguably the most important cultural event in the country, Incwala is

celebrated for six days in the last week of December or the first
week of January.

In addition to tasting the fresh fruits, the African harvest festival

includes music, dancing, and ancient tribal rituals led by the king.

Bazaar in Turkmenistan by Peretz Partensky from San Francisco, USA CC BY-SA 2.0 via
Wiki
 TURKMENISTAN (MELON DAY)

39. The newest (and arguably weirdest) harvest festival on this list,
Melon Day was established in 1994 by Turkmenistan’s president,
Saparmurat “Turkmenbashi” Niyazov.

Observed on the second Sunday of August, the festival celebrates

the Turkmenbashi melon, which was obviously named in the
leader’s honor.

This muskmelon has been praised (particularly by Niyazov) for its

aroma, large size, and flavor. The celebration, which is held in the
capital city of Ashgabat, includes dancing, music, and an artful
display of every possible muskmelon variety you can imagine.

King Mpezeni of the Ngoni people of Zambia by Lighton Phiri CC BY 2.0 via Wiki
 ZAMBIA (N’CWALA)

40. Not to be confused with the Incwala Festival of Swaziland, this

festival for Zambia’s Ngoni people is held every year in February.

It celebrates the first harvest of the year, as well as the arrival of

their ancestors to Zambia in 1835.

To honor the occasion, a dozen local chieftains make a pilgrimage

to Mutenguleni Village: There, their best dancers compete in
elaborate outfits and headdresses made from animal hides.

The tribal chief chooses the best dance crew, and even joins in the
dancing himself. Once he drinks the blood of a cow, symbolizing the
year’s first harvest, the entire community begins enjoying a fantastic
feast.