TOP 10 fire festivals around the world!

TOP 10 fire festivals around the world!

    While we have our own festival of lights coming up, there are so many other places to watch the dark skies light up with colour. An online travel consultant has come up with the best fire festivals around the world. 

Children play with sparklers on a fire festival 

 

1. GUY FAWKES NIGHT (BONFIRE NIGHT) — ENGLAND Guy Fawkes Night (Nov 5) goes back to 1605 when Guy Fawkes, one of the members of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives in the House of Lords, London. With the plot to blow up the House of Lords — and kill King James I — foiled, Londoners lit bonfires around the city in celebration. This tradition continues to this day, and usually there’s an effigy of Guy Fawkes placed at the center of it. 

2. DAIZENJI TAMATAREGU SHRINE’S ‘ONIYO’ — FUKUOKA, JAPAN Fukuoka hosts one of its oldest fire festivals. Daizenji Tamataregu Shrine’s ‘Oniyo’ (Fire Festival) is a ceremony to drive away evil spirits that has been practiced for 1,600 years. It's held in early January each year. A ‘devil fire’ that has been guarded at the temple is transferred — at around 9 p.m. on the seventh day (Jan. 7) — to six massive torches measuring one meter in diameter and 15 meters long. It’s considered to be good luck if embers or ash from the torches fall on them. 

3. JEONGWOL DAEBOREUM DEULBUL FESTIVAL — JEJU, S. KOREA In early February, the Jeongwol Daeboreum Deulbul Festival takes place on the island of Jeju. It’s a fairly new festival, younger than 20 years old, but its origins go back to the time when families kept cows. To keep the grass grazeable, farmers set fire to the fields in the mountains to destroy old grass and kill harmful insects. Today, a hilltop is set alight to pray for health and a good harvest in the coming year. There's a torchlight march, strawrope making competition and deumdol (rock) lifting. 
 
4. DIWALI — INDIA The best-known Hindu festival is known as the “Festival of Lights.” Diwali (or Deepavali) means ‘rows of lighted lamps’ and, during this time, houses, shops and public places are decorated with diyas (small earthenware oil lamps), elaborate feasts are prepared and spectacular fireworks displays light up the skies. The five-day festival (Nov. 13-17 this year) celebrates the triumph of good over evil and is celebrated throughout India and around the world. 

5.. SAMHAIN 2012 Out of the Darkness — Altoona, Florida, USA. More than 500 pagans gather in Florida for the state's largest pagan festival. Running from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4 at Camp Ocala, each day is filled with feasting, rituals, drumming, dancing and live entertainment. The main ritual in 2012 is centered around the ‘Burning Times’ when so-called ‘witches’ were put to death. 

6. QUEMA DEL DIABLO (BURNING OF THE DEVIL) — GUATEMALA In early December Guatemalans ready themselves for the Christmas season by...driving the devil from their homes and burning him in the streets! For centuries, the traditional ceremony has been performed to chase bad spirits from homes and neighborhoods. By watching bonfires, firework displays and burning devil figures in the streets, locals say they are spiritually cleansing themselves. 

7. OTTERY ST MARY — DEVON, ENGLAND In the small town of Ottery St Mary, the bonfire and fireworks are not the focal point of the community’s celebrations. The local townspeople carry flaming barrels of tar through the streets. Traditionally, the barrels are set on fire at pubs and hotels around the town and a strict schedule is followed until midnight when the final barrel is carried in the square. 

8. UP HELLY AA, LERWICK — SHETLAND ISLANDS, SCOTLAND This festival is held on the last Tuesday of January (Jan 29 in 2013). Nearly 1,000 men march in ranks, carrying fencing posts topped in paraffin-soaked sacking. At 7.30 pm a rocket cresting over the Town Hall marks the start. Torches are lit, bands start playing and the men march with the Guizer Jarl (the head of the festival) who stands at the helm of a longship. Dragged to the burning site, the Guizer Jarl will leave his ship for it to be set alight. As the longship is engulfed by flames, the Vikings sing The Norseman's Home before heading to halls for feasts and warming drinks. 

9. BONFIRE NIGHT — NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA When English and Irish people, in search of a better life, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Canada, they took their traditions with them. The English took Guy Fawkes Night, the Irish took Samhain and over time the traditions merged into Mischief Week. With a belief that certain types of naughty behavior (soaping windows, taking pins from gate hinges or stealing old tires for bonfires) is permitted at this time, many of Newfoundland & Labrador's close-knit communities hold bonfires and celebrations. 

10. SADEH — IRAN Sadeh (or Jashn-e Sadeh) is an ancient Zoroastrian festival. It honors the discovery of fire that defeated the forces of darkness and cold. Traditionally, festivities went on for three days and gifts of food were given to the poor. Today, Zoroastrians light bonfires, perform religious rituals around them and thank God for his blessings. It's usually celebrated in the Kushk-e Varjavand gardens in Karaj.

Fireworks light up Guy Fawkes’ Night