THE FESTIVAL ITINERARY

Vibrant parades, technicolour costumes and celebrations in monochrome. KEITH MUNDY explores the spectrum of festivals across the planet

Paint, pachyderms and puppetry: KEITH MUNDY hops from one dazzling spectacle to the next

HUMANKIND IS NEVER so colourful nor so exuberant as when people get in festival mode, and the world abounds with celebrations of imaginative brilliance.

HOLI, INDIA 1

The ‘Festival of Colours’ celebrates the start of spring across North India, with people throwing coloured water over each other and smearing each other’s faces with coloured powder. Though a Hindu festival, nowadays Indians of all persuasions take part in Holi, and not just because it’s fun – but also because it’s a great release valve in which caste, creed, gender, age and all the marks of status are binned for one day. The only distinguishing mark is the new rainbow colour of your skin. CARNIVAL, RIO DE JANEIRO, 2 BRAZIL Surely the world’s most spectacular festival, the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro is a stupendous orgy of theatricality that gives Brazilians world fame as matchless party people. Carnival is so supremely important that capital-dwellers – Cariocas – spend all year preparing for the celebration each February. Alongside gigantic parade floats, scantily-clad performers make up for a lack of material with a riot of colour: vibrant plumes of feathers, gem-encrusted headdresses and glittering outfits. ESALA PERAHERA, KANDY, 3 SRI LANKA Few rituals match the splendour of the Esala Perahera. To honour the nation’s most sacred relic, the Buddha’s tooth – held deep within Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth – a replica is carried around the city for 10 days in a great procession. Growing grander each evening, the pageantry reaches a magnificent climax on the last night. Whips crack, drums beat and oboes wail, dancers shimmy, dozens of gorgeously caparisoned elephants stride past, until there comes the glittering majesty of the Maligawa Tusker, carrying the replica in a golden casket within a bejewelled carriage.

LAS FALLAS, VALENCIA, SPAIN 4

The Mediterranean port city of Valencia hosts Europe’s biggest festival every March. About two million visitors join the Valencians to see the fallas – gigantic papier-mâché figures paying homage to celebrities or lampooning politicians – and witness hundreds of people parade through the streets in richly brocaded traditional gowns. It starts with thousands of fireworks, setting the night sky ablaze with vibrant pyrotechnics, and ends with a massive congregation of all the fallas, with one chosen as the winner. BORYEONG MUD FESTIVAL, 5 BORYEONG, SOUTH KOREA Is a festival even a festival without colour? Yes, if you head for the South Korean seaside town of Boryeong in July to join three million others in monochrome, mud-caked madness. Begun in 1998 as a promotional event for mud-infused beauty products, the fest now centres on immersive attractions such as a mud pool, mud slides, mud prison, mud skiing and mud body painting – all, you guessed it, in a single hue.每到喜慶時節，便是色顏 大解放，迸發異彩的時刻。世界各地的慶典多不勝數，各具創意特「色」。

印五節度彩1

五彩節於冬去春來之際在印度北部盛大舉行參， 加者會互潑顏料水，在彼此的臉上塗抹彩粉。五彩節原是度印 教的節慶，但至時 今日，全國上下不論任何均信仰踴躍參與，慶祝充滿色彩的一天。所有人亦會在活動中拋開種姓階級宗、 教、性別、年齡等身分地位的包袱，忘我同歡。大家唯一的分別，就只是染剛 上的七彩色「膚 」。

巴里西 約熱內嘉華盧 年2

里約熱內盧嘉年華可謂是全球最壯觀的節慶活動，這個狂歡慶典極盡華麗繽紛，歌臺舞榭，令巴西人冠上派動對 物的美譽。對里約人而言，這個每年2月舉行的嘉年華常非 重要，他們會花上一整年時間精心籌備。除了造型千姿百態的巨型花車外，扮打 性感的表演者以絢爛奪目的羽飾、鑲有寶石的頭飾和閃爍亮眼的服裝登場，熱情奔放，艷光四射，教人目不暇給。

斯里蘭卡康提佛牙節3

斯里蘭卡的佛牙節別開生面，規模和氣派有鮮 其他慶典能夠匹敵。佛牙舍利是斯里蘭卡最莊嚴的聖物，供奉於康佛提 牙寺密室內，受到嚴密保護，在一連十天的節慶巡遊中亮相的只是仿製品。巡遊場面一晚晚，比一 壯觀 到最後一夜更會上演精最 采的重頭響戲， 鞭、擊鼓與管雙簧 的樂聲響徹雲舞霄， 蹈員則擺動著身軀地優美 起舞。數十頭盛裝打扮的大象闊步，前行 最後為名Maligawa Tusker的大象隆重登場全，牠 身披上莊嚴華貴的裝飾，馱著鑲滿寶石的佛龕，內裡放了黃金匣子盛載的佛牙複製品。

西班牙華倫西亞火節4

每年3月，歐洲最大型的慶典就在地中海港口城華西市 倫 亞展開。約200萬名訪客蜂擁而至，跟當地人一起朝拜活動的主角：模仿名人或諷刺政界人物的巨型紙漿人偶。數以百計穿上傳統織錦華服的巡遊人士穿梭大街小巷吸， 引了大批觀眾圍觀。大會發放數千枚煙花打響頭炮，璨璀 的光芒照亮夜空；到了盛會尾聲，大家還把有所人偶聚於一堂，並選出最受歡迎的作品。

南韓保寧泥漿節5

誰說節日必須要色彩紛陳？月7 在南韓海濱城市保寧舉行的慶典，就只得種一色調，每卻 年吸引300萬人在泥漿中樂而忘返。保寧泥漿節在1998年創辦，意原 是推廣當地的泥漿美容產品至；時 今日，這個慶典已發為展 人氣節目，包括泥漿池、泥滑梯、泥漿監獄、滑泥場和人體泥繪等，勢要令人「泥足深陷」，玩得起勁，讓大家以單一的色盡調， 展好玩本「色」。

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