Winter festivals from around the world
Every year in early December, my three sisters-in-law gather from around the world (Prague, Dubai and Toronto) at the Christmas markets in Vienna (Nov. 15 to Dec. 26) to shop, drink Glühwein and be jolly. It's got to the point where the season just wouldn't be the same without their gifts of handmade Austrian bric-a-brac. (Check out other European getaways!)
At this time of year, Europe brims with sleighfuls of festive offerings. From the Tivoli Gardens market in Copenhagen (Nov. 13 to Dec. 30)—with more than six kilometres of twinkling lights invented by a Tiffany & Co. designer—to midnight masses, Dresden's elaborately iced gingerbread and its 8,000-pound fruitcake that lands in the main square on Dec. 5, Europe does up the season the way it was meant to be: full of tradition, the air redolent with roasting chestnuts, stalls brimming with handcrafted treasures and everyone outside smiling at one another.
But there's more to the holidays than Santa. Here are a few offbeat winter offerings to tempt you....
Night of the radishes
On Dec. 23 in Oaxaca, Mexico, this ordinary red root morphs into massive sculptures taking over the city's main square. Witness a towering Madonna carved from a single vegetable, and various red-and-white scenes depicting everything from a fully attended nativity to an animated salsa band. (Or find out why so many creative Canadian women fall under San Miguel's spell.)
Butter sculpture festival
To help celebrate the new year in Tibet, Buddhist monks fashion elaborate yak-butter sculptures depicting various fables, religious stories or deities. The most famous are at the Kumbum monastery. Painted in vibrant colours, these high-cholesterol carvings soar several metres and, on the night of Feb. 28, are illuminated with hundreds of yak-butter lamps. The monks' creations are then destroyed before dawn—testament to the Buddhist belief in the impermanence of all things.
