Colorful Religious Festivals
 
Every Religion has its own practices, traditions and rituals. Many cultures around the world celebrate and have different festivals according to their own beliefs. Here are some colorful pictures and descriptions of religious festivals. 
 
The Hindu spring festival of Holi, which starts March 11, is religion in technicolor. A look at some more of the most unusual ceremonies practiced worldwide
 


Holi, India
"Play" isn't a verb necessarily associated with a religious festival, but tell that to the millions of Hindus eager to "play Holi" when the holiday starts March 11. The Hindu spring festival celebrating color becomes a giant chalk/dye/water fight, as people take the streets to douse each other in bright jewel tones. The festival has even greater meaning this year: some companies are hosting large Holi celebrations to counteract the doom-and-gloom of the recession, while other Hindus aren't playing at all, opting for reserved observance in memory of those killed in the Mumbai terror attacks.



Pig of God Festival, Taiwan
Each September, in defiance of Taiwanese authorities and animal rights activists, Taiwan's Hakka ethnic group in the Hsinchu County weighs hundreds of pigs, slaughtering and consuming the heftiest one in honor of their martyrs. The practice made headlines in 2007, when the world's heaviest pig was killed as part of the ceremony. The record was a dubious one, however — the pig was force-fed sand and metal to increase its heft before slaughter, a common practice before the holiday.



Race of the Saints, Italy and the United States
The May 15 death of Italian Saint Ubaldo Baldassini is commemorated with a race through the streets by groups of runners carrying statues of Ubaldo, Saint Anthony and Saint George, each sitting atop a gigantic wooden pedestal. The tradition started in Gubbio, Italy — Ubaldo is the protector of the city — but it has also been adopted by the small town of Jessup, Penn., which runs an identical race every year on Memorial Day weekend.



Songkran, Thailand
Songkran is the April celebration of the traditional start of Thai new year. It used to be closely tied to Buddhist prayer, but now its largely secularized in the form of a giant country-wide water and chalk fight, designed to represent spiritual cleansing.



Easter, Philippines
Every Easter in this heavily Catholic country, several Filipino men go through a gruesome five-minute reenactment of Christ's crucifixion during ceremonies held in several towns across the country —including being nailed to a cross. Ruben Enaje has been crucified as part of the ritual 22 times the practice draws criticism from the Roman Catholic Church.



Shoton, Tibet
Opera and yogurt might seem an unusual pairing, but that's the main attraction at Tibet's Shoton Festival. Held in August, the festival marks the end of a period of Buddhist meditation in mountain monasteries. As the monks descend to the settlements below, they're met by singing opera troupes and drink yogurt offered by the villagers. The festival includes the unveiling of huge thankas, traditional Buddhist religious paintings.



Maslenitsa, Russia
Maslenitsa has mellowed over the years. Today, Russian Orthodox Christians' pre-Lenten equivalent of Mardi Gras is known as butter week or pancake week, since dairy products are taboo during the Lenten season. But years ago, the occasion used to be marked by fist-fights, often to the death, as Russians squared off against Tartan traders with a purse on the line. The tradition lives on in a more lenient form in the occasional mass boxing match.



Nine Emperor Gods Festival, Thailand
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival, marked in some form throughout much of Southeast Asia, is a nine-day celebration timed to the ninth lunar month of the year appealing to nine gods for fortune (Notice a pattern here?). But in Phuket, Thailand, the celebration is cringe-inducing. Celebrants called mah song pierce their bodies with everything from pins to tusks — even flagpoles and guns —to channel the intense pain that's supposed to make them intermediaries to the gods.



Gloecklerlauf, Austria
Gloecklerlauf is an clamorous candlelit parade through Austria's dark mountain towns, celebrating the end of the twelve days between Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany (the day the three Magi visited the infant Jesus in Bethlehem). On Jan. 5, the night before Epiphany, Austrian men wear specially fashioned hats called Kappen and parade through rural villages in the country's northern Salzkammergut region, ringing bells and carrying flames inside their hats to ward off evil spirits.



Up Helly-Aa, Shetland
Combining rugged viking traditions, a massive faux-funeral pyre and crossdressing, Up Helly-Aa, celebrated on this archipelago off the northern coast of Scotland, is a tradition like any other. Marking the end of the Yule season, Shetland islanders dress up in elaborate costumes and parade through city streets performing skits. At the end of the night, they toss flaming torches onto a galley built especially for the festival, setting it ablaze.
 
 
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