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Here are some of the Thanksgiving Day’s cousins
Autumn is a bright and busy time of the year. This is the time of summing up and harvesting. And it is especially great to spend it outside the city – where people live in harmony with the rhythms of nature. Let’s talk about the beautiful autumn traditions of the world.
Wine Festival, Europe
In autumn, winemaking holidays are celebrated in several European countries: France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany. One of the brightest grape events is the harvest festival, which takes place in early October in the wine capital of Germany, the city of Neustadt (Neustadt an der Weinstraße). Every year, local winemakers offer more than a hundred types of wine for tasting! But the event is not limited to tastings. The winemaking festival is a bright show with parades, street performances, fairs, attractions, master classes and the traditional choice of the “wine” queen.
Chuseok holiday, South Korea
The day of the holiday is calculated according to the lunar calendar, so it always falls on the full moon. Koreans celebrate Chuseok in a big way. The celebration goes on for three days (in 2019 it is September 12-14), and at this time almost all public institutions and shops are closed. On the first day of the holiday, the highways are filled with cars: everyone rushes to their native places to meet Chuseok with his family. This is the time when Koreans thank the land for its generosity and generously treat guests themselves. The traditional dish for the holiday is songpyeon. These rice cakes in different provinces have learned to cook in dozens of different ways.
Saffron harvest, India
Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. It is valued for its delicate taste, exceptional aroma and healing properties. Often, spice sellers pass off fakes as saffron, for example, ground marigold flowers. Where to go for real saffron? To India, for the holiday of saffron harvesting! It is grown in the state of Kashmir, and this process is very laborious. To get a kilogram of the “king of spices”, workers need to manually extract the stamens from several thousand flowers. You need to catch it during the flowering period, and this is only about a week a year, at the end of October. At this time, a three-day saffron festival takes place in the Indian region of Pulwama.
Sukkot, Israel
In the Jewish world, Sukkot is one of the three main holidays of the year. In 2019, it falls on October 13 and starts the day before at sunset. There is an unusual tradition: on this day to leave your house and live in a hut, or at least visit it several times a day. It is customary to serve dishes from vegetables of the new crop to the festive table on this day.
Moon cake festival, China
In China, the Zhongqiujie Harvest Festival is also celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, also known as Mooncake Day. Residents of the country gather at tables laid on the street, admire the full moon and eat small round gingerbread cakes. They are baked in molds, and on the surface they make prints with quotes from books, good wishes or images of heroes of fairy tales and legends. The filling of moon cakes is very different – from nuts and dates to meat, fish and vegetables.
