In different parts of the world, winter brings some celebrations, festivals, and other events that only happen at that time of the year.
In New York, there is a train that makes people feel like they have gone back in time! For about one month in winter, people can ride a holiday train that has cars from the 1930s through the 1970s.
The train cars are made to look as close as possible to cars from the past. The seats, doors, signs, and even the station announcements all make passengers feel like they are travelling in history. Some people dress up in clothes from the past to ride on the train, too!
Photo Credit: Richard Levine
New York, Oaxaca, and Sapporo are thousands of miles apart from each other.
New York is in the northeastern United States. There are winter festivals in other parts of the world, too. Let’s look at festivals in the cities of Oaxaca and Sapporo. Oaxaca is a city in southern Mexico. Sapporo is a city on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Photo Credit: McGraw Hill
The radish sculptures are carefully carved and can have many details.
In Oaxaca, Mexico, the winter festival Night of the Radishes lasts for three days. People carve radishes to make sculptures, or pieces of art. The radishes are cut into many different shapes and sizes to make the sculptures. They are often carved to look like people, animals, or objects.
Over the three days, there will be fireworks, music, and dancing. There is a competition where the best radish art will be chosen! Thousands of people visit the Night of the Radishes festival every year.
Photo Credit: Jennifer Booher
The Sapporo Snow Festival includes some large ice sculptures that are as tall as houses.
In many parts of the world, winter often means there will be snow. In Sapporo, Japan, there is a festival of snow! The Sapporo Snow Festival started in 1950 when high school students built some snow statues. A lot of visitors came to see the statues, and the festival started.
Today, the festival is much bigger. There are hundreds of snow and ice sculptures. Some of the sculptures are lit up at nighttime. There are ice-sculpture competitions. People from all over the world enter the competitions.
There is ice skating, slides made from snow, and lots of other activities, too. The festival lasts for one week and can have over two million visitors!
What Do You Think? What winter festival would you like to learn more about? Why?
Photo Credit: Terry Donnelly
