Unit 7 · Festivals, Arts and Everyday Life

Picture a street in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Drums pound. Thousands of dancers wear feathers and sequins. Giant floats roll by. People on the sidewalks sing and dance too. This is Carnival, one of the biggest parties on Earth.

Carnival comes just before Lent. Lent is a season of about forty days in the Christian calendar. Many Christians give something up during Lent. So people celebrate with joy before it starts. Carnival lasts several days in February or March.

In Rio, groups called samba schools practice all year. They build floats and sew costumes. Then they parade and dance to samba music. Samba grew from the music of Afro-Brazilian communities. Judges pick a winning school. Other Brazilian cities have their own Carnival styles.

Mei’s family cleans every corner of their home in Beijing. They hang red paper on the doors. Red stands for good luck. Tomorrow is the Spring Festival. It is China’s biggest holiday. Many people call it Lunar New Year.

The date comes from a lunar calendar. A lunar calendar follows the moon. So the holiday moves each year. It falls in January or February. Each year is also named for one of twelve animals, like the dragon or the rabbit.

Families travel far to be together. On New Year’s Eve they share a big dinner. In the north, many families fold dumplings. Children get red envelopes with money inside. Lion dances and fireworks fill the streets. The festival ends about fifteen days later with the Lantern Festival.

Ji-woo puts on a bright hanbok. A hanbok is traditional Korean clothing. Today is Seollal, the Korean Lunar New Year. Ji-woo and her brother kneel before their grandparents. They bow all the way to the floor.

This deep bow is called sebae. It shows respect for elders. After the bow, the grandparents give good wishes for the year. They often give the children a little money too. Many families also honor their ancestors on this day.

Then everyone eats tteokguk. It is a soup with thin slices of rice cake. Many Koreans say eating it makes you one year older. China and Korea usually share the same holiday date. Yet each country celebrates in its own way.

At dusk in Jaipur, India, Priya sets small clay lamps along the steps of her home. Each lamp is called a diya. Soon hundreds of little flames glow down the street. It is Diwali, the festival of lights.

Diwali comes in October or November. It lasts about five days. Hindus, Sikhs and Jains all celebrate it, each with their own stories. Many Hindus remember the god Rama returning home. People lit lamps to welcome him. The lights stand for good winning over evil.

Families clean their homes and wear new clothes. They share sweets with neighbors. Many make rangoli at the doorway. Rangoli are bright patterns made from colored powder, rice or flowers. Many families also pray for a good year ahead.

Remember Lucía’s sugar skull? She was getting ready for Día de los Muertos. The name means Day of the Dead. It is celebrated on November 1 and 2. It began in Mexico and blends Indigenous and Catholic traditions.

Families build an ofrenda. An ofrenda is an altar with photos of loved ones who have died. They add candles, the person’s favorite foods and sweet bread called pan de muerto. Orange marigolds light the way with their color and smell.

Many families visit the cemetery. They clean the graves and decorate them with flowers. Some stay late, sharing food and stories. The day is not meant to be scary. It is a way to say that the people we love are still remembered.

In 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese. The city of Munich threw a party in a big field. There was a horse race. Everyone was invited. People liked it so much that they did it again the next year.

That party became Oktoberfest. Today it starts in late September and ends in early October. Millions of visitors come. They ride a Ferris wheel and roller coasters. They eat big soft pretzels and roast chicken. Brass bands play in huge tents.

Many people wear traditional dress from Bavaria. Men may wear leather shorts called lederhosen. Women may wear a dress and apron called a dirndl. Other cities, including some in the United States, now hold their own Oktoberfests.

In early spring, the cherry trees in a Tokyo park burst into pale pink. Families spread blue mats on the grass. Friends share rice balls and tea. Petals drift down like snow. This custom is called hanami, which means flower viewing.

Cherry blossoms are called sakura. They bloom for only a week or two. Then the petals fall. Many people in Japan see this as a reminder. Beautiful things do not last forever, so enjoy them now.

The flowers open first in the warm south and later in the cool north. TV news shows maps of where the trees are blooming. People have enjoyed hanami for more than a thousand years. In 1912, Tokyo gave cherry trees to Washington, D.C., as a gift of friendship.

On July 4, fireworks burst over towns across the United States. The day marks 1776. That year, leaders approved the Declaration of Independence. It said the colonies were free from Britain. A day like this is called an Independence Day.

Other nations have their own. Mexico celebrates on September 16. In 1810, a priest named Miguel Hidalgo rang a church bell and called for freedom. Brazil celebrates on September 7, from 1822. India celebrates on August 15, from 1947.

These days share some things. There are flags, parades and speeches. Families picnic and watch fireworks. Each one helps a country remember its history. It also tells people they belong to one nation.

Look back at the festivals in this chapter. Why do people hold them? Most have one of four reasons. The first is the harvest. The harvest is when crops are gathered. In Korea, the fall holiday Chuseok gives thanks for the harvest.

The second reason is history. Independence Days remember big events in a nation’s past. The third reason is family. Lunar New Year brings families home. Día de los Muertos keeps loved ones in memory.

The fourth reason is faith. Faith means religious belief. Diwali and the season before Lent come from religious calendars. Many festivals mix reasons. Diwali is about faith, family and a fresh start. Knowing the reasons helps you understand a festival from the inside.

Every March, Chicago dyes its river bright green for St. Patrick’s Day. The city has done this since 1962. Crowds wear green and watch a parade downtown. The holiday honors Irish heritage. Chicago has a large Irish American community.

Every August, the Bud Billiken Parade marches through Bronzeville on the South Side. It began in 1929. It celebrates Black children and the start of the school year. Bands, drill teams and dancers fill the street.

Many other neighborhood festivals happen too. Chinatown holds a Lunar New Year parade with lion dances. Pilsen and Little Village celebrate Mexican Independence. Humboldt Park hosts the Puerto Rican festival each June. Each one shares a heritage with the whole city.

A wedding party dances in Guadalajara, Mexico. Suddenly, a group of musicians walks in. They wear matching suits with silver buttons and wide hats. Trumpets ring out. Violins sing. This is a mariachi band.

Mariachi music comes from western Mexico, especially the state of Jalisco. A band often has violins, trumpets and several kinds of guitar. One is the guitarrón, a very large guitar that plays the low notes. The musicians sing too.

Mariachi bands play at birthdays, weddings and holidays. In 2011, UNESCO added mariachi to its list of important living traditions. UNESCO is part of the United Nations. Today mariachi bands play all over the world, including in Chicago.

In Seville, Spain, a dancer stands very still. A guitarist begins to play. A singer lets out a long, deep cry. Then the dancer’s heels strike the floor, fast as rain. People around her clap in sharp rhythms. This is flamenco.

Flamenco comes from Andalusia, in southern Spain. The Roma people, called Gitanos in Spain, did much to create it. Their music mixed with other traditions of the region. Flamenco has three main parts: singing, guitar and dance.

Flamenco songs can be joyful or full of sorrow. Hand clapping, called palmas, keeps the rhythm. Dancers stamp their feet to add sound. In 2010, UNESCO named flamenco an important living tradition too.

In a stadium in Los Angeles, fans wave glowing sticks. They sing along in Korean, even if they do not speak it. On stage, seven singers dance in perfect step. They are BTS, a K-pop group from South Korea.

K-pop means Korean popular music. It took off in the 1990s. It blends pop, hip-hop, rock and dance music. Groups train for years in singing and dancing. Their music videos are bright and carefully planned.

The internet helped K-pop spread. Fans in Brazil, India and Chicago can watch a new video the day it comes out. K-pop borrowed from American music. Now American artists borrow from K-pop. Music can travel both ways.

The sitar is a stringed instrument from India. It has a long wooden neck and a round body, often made from a gourd. Some strings are plucked. Others ring on their own, making a shimmering sound. Ravi Shankar made the sitar famous around the world in the 1960s.

The talking drum comes from West Africa. It is shaped like an hourglass. Cords run from one drumhead to the other. A drummer holds it under one arm. Squeezing the cords makes the sound go higher. Letting go makes it lower.

Many West African languages, like Yoruba, are tonal. That means a word’s meaning changes with high or low sound. A skilled drummer can copy those sounds. Listeners can recognize names and messages. The drum can almost talk.

Most of the world calls it football. In the United States it is called soccer. Kicking-ball games are very old in many lands. The modern rules were written in England in 1863. A group called the Football Association wrote them.

Soccer is simple to start. You need a ball and something for goals. Two sandals or two rocks will do. That is one reason it spread so fast. Sailors, workers and students carried it to South America, Africa and Asia.

Every four years, national teams play in the men’s World Cup. A women’s World Cup is held too. Brazil has won the men’s cup more than any other country. Stars like Pelé of Brazil made fans on every continent.

In a Mumbai street, kids use a crate for a wicket. A boy runs up and bowls the ball. The batter swings a flat bat. This is cricket. It came to India from Britain. Today India has more cricket fans than any other country.

Cricket and baseball are cousins. In both, one player throws, one bats and the batter’s team scores runs. India won cricket’s World Cup in 1983 and 2011. Huge crowds pack the stadiums.

Baseball began in the United States. An American teacher, Horace Wilson, taught it in Japan in the 1870s. Japan now has a top professional league. The Dominican Republic loves baseball too. Many Major League players were born there. Some stars come from Japan, like Shohei Ohtani.

Two players sit over a board of 64 squares. They move kings, queens, knights and pawns. This game is chess. It is played in parks, schools and online in nearly every country. But where did it start?

Most historians trace chess to India about 1,400 years ago. There it was called chaturanga. The pieces stood for parts of an army: foot soldiers, horses, elephants and chariots. Chaturanga then traveled to Persia, today’s Iran. There it was called shatranj.

From Persia, the game spread to Arab lands and then to Europe. Along the way, pieces changed. The Persian adviser piece became the queen. Our word checkmate comes from the Persian shah mat. It means the king is helpless.

A grandfather in Ghana sits under a tree. Children crowd around. "This is an Anansi story," he says. They lean in. Anansi is a small spider. He is not strong, but he is very clever. He uses tricks to beat bigger animals.

Anansi stories come from the Akan people of Ghana. They are folktales. A folktale is a story told out loud and passed down for many years. In one famous tale, Anansi wins all the world’s stories from the Sky God, Nyame.

Enslaved Africans carried Anansi stories across the ocean. The tales lived on in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean and the Americas. Anansi is a trickster. A trickster is a clever character who uses wits instead of strength.

In the early 1800s, two brothers in Germany went looking for stories. Their names were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. They listened to neighbors, friends and storytellers. They wrote the tales down carefully.

In 1812, they published their first book of fairy tales. It included Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. Many of the stories were darker than the cartoon versions you may know.

The brothers worried that these stories would be forgotten. Writing them down helped preserve them. Today their tales have been translated into well over a hundred languages. Movies and picture books still retell them.

A monkey bursts out of a stone egg on a mountaintop. He is fast, strong and very proud. He learns magic. He can leap across the sky on a cloud. His name is Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.

The Monkey King is a hero of Journey to the West. It is a Chinese novel written in the 1500s. Many scholars credit it to Wu Cheng’en. In the story, the Monkey King causes so much trouble in heaven that he is trapped under a mountain.

Later he is set free to protect a monk on a long trip to India. The monk is bringing back holy Buddhist writings. The Monkey King learns to use his power to help others. Operas, cartoons and video games still tell his adventures.

Think about everything in this chapter. Chess moved from India to Persia to Europe. Soccer sailed from England to Brazil. Anansi crossed the ocean to Jamaica. Culture travels when people move, trade and share.

When cultures meet, they often blend. Blend means to mix into something new. Flamenco blended Roma music with other sounds of Spain. K-pop blended Korean songs with American hip-hop. The new thing belongs to both.

Blending does not erase where something came from. Chaturanga became chess, but it is still India’s gift. Knowing a thing’s roots is a way to show respect. It honors the people who made it first.