Find The Best Food Festivals Around The World

One of the most popular food festivals in the world, the Maine Lobster Festival is to seafood what Hollywood is to divorce even the ones you never heard of are worth talking about. Maine Lobster Festival has been running for more than 60 years. These delicious crustaceans pull in the crowds with thousands of boiled lobsters cooked in the world’s largest steamer.

Everyone loves eating food. Foodies all over the world are curious about different food cultures of different countries. In a world where you can have a full English breakfast followed by a French inspired brunch and an Italian dinner with some wine to go with it, food festival has always been an excellent door to exploring local cuisine. The popularity of food festivals has been growing each year and with many new ones getting scheduled every year, a best food aficionado can loads to choose from.

Valencia, Spain

Having a bunch of tomatoes thrown at you isn’t most people’s idea of a good time.But the harvest surplus has to be put to some use. La Tomatina hails back to the 1940s, where it kicked off as a food fight in a local eatery.The food fight grew and grew, and now around 30,000 visitors home in on the village Bunol each year to lob kilos of squishy fruit at each other.

San Francisco, United States

San Francisco street food festivals is a festival like no other as over 50,000 people come to taste the best food the bay area has to offer. The reason it’s one of a kind even though the festival is only 5 years old is down to the feel of the festival. Street food is gaining rapidly as a business and it’s no longer considered to be cheap’ as there are some quality stalls that offer food as good as some Michelin star restaurant would.

Gilroy, California 

One of the biggest food festivals in the United States, this pungent party in Gilroy, California celebrates the mighty aromatic known as garlic. Discover garlic cooking demonstrations, garlic braiding classes and a spectacular array of garlic-infused healthy food, including garlic ice cream, garlic pop corn and garlic mussels.

Sydney, Australia

Mention food festivals in Australia and you’ll most likely get a discussion about the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. And, yes, we know it’s fabulous.But here is where that Melbourne and Sydney rivalry comes in. We all know Melbourne is the foodie city, but Sydney is giving it a run for its money and with a little glamour added for good measure.

Galway, Ireland

Easily the most famous food festival of Ireland and also the oldest oyster festival in the world, Galway Oyster festival is known for vast platters of shellfish, pints of the famous Guiness beer and great live music. Started in September 1954 by Brian Collins, the festival includes beer as well as Oyster tasting which offers some great varieties of oyster.

Most Popular Jewish Wedding Dance

Jewish wedding dance can include a number of traditional Jewish wedding dances interspersed between contemporary and secular music. The bride and groom often decide what to include based on how traditional the Jewish wedding festivities will be.

Jewish people divide themselves into Askhenazi Jews (descended from Eastern European Jews), African Jews (Ethiopian, Nigerian, Ugandan Jews, also not of the aforemention major ethnic backgrounds) Sephardic Jews from Iberia (Spain and Portugal), Indian, Bukharan, Persian, Iraqi, Yemenite Jew, and Mizrahi (Eastern or Middle Eastern Jews [not of Spanish/Portuguese or Sephardic origin]).    

                                                                                                     
Trends

Jewish weddings are often ripe with customs passed down from generation to generation, and dances are no exception. Contemporary couples may choose to devote a portion of their Jewish wedding reception music to participating in classic dances. They may base this upon their own wishes, the desires of their parents, or the ratio of guests who will understand how to engage in these dances.

Gladdening of the Bride

The traditional Jewish dance, the "Gladdening of the Bride" is performed at the end of the Jewish wedding reception. For this dance, there is no specific song that is used. Any different traditional Jewish wedding instrumental music is played, as long as it is upbeat and lively. For this dance, the guests form a circle on the dance floor, and the bride sits in the center of the circle. The guests dance around her in a circle, singing praises about her.

Mezinke Tanz

The Mezinke Tanz is another dance performed at a Jewish wedding reception when the last son or daughter in the family is getting married. For this dance, the mother is given a crown of flowers to wear on her head, and the parents sit in chairs in the middle of the dance floor and all of the guests dance around the joyous family. The Mezinke Tanz is classic danced to the song "Di Mezinke Oysgegebn," which translates to, “Away the Youngest Daughter.” A very special occassion is a "double mezinke" when both sets of parents have married off their last child.

Hora

During the Hora, the bride and groom are lifted above the shoulders of guests. Sitting upon chairs, they may wave handkerchiefs at each other or hold onto the ends of a single handkerchief. A large circle of guests is formed around them, dancing clockwise or counterclockwise. Foot movements include kicks and grapevine-like steps. Weaving and bopping up and down may also occur. The circle of friends and family often alternate between a large loose circle and coming in close to the couple and out again.