Howell Melon Festival | |
---|---|
Status | annual |
Genre | festivals |
Frequency | Annually |
Location(s) | Howell, Michigan |
Country | USA |
Years active | 61 |
Inaugurated | 1961 |
Founder | Dr. Louis May |
Website | www |
The Howell Melon Festival is a food festival held in mid-August which showcases the Howell melon, a cantaloupe hybrid claimed to be found only in the area surrounding Howell, Michigan. The first Howell Melon Festival was held in 1961. About 50,000 people attend the three day festival each year.
In years past, the highlight of the festival was a beauty contest to elect the Howell Melon Queen. The very first Melon Queen, a beautiful nurse, won a trip to Washington, D.C. where she met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House. The news wires picked up the story of the beauty queen and the Howell melons, earning front-page stories in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times , and "that's how the Howell melon got famous", according to Dr. Louis May, organizer of the first festival. [1]
The festival is now managed by the Howell Area Parks and Recreation Authority. Instead of a Melon Queen, the new tradition is to elect children as Melon Prince and Princess, Mini Prince and Princess, and (the youngest category) Sprout Prince and Princess .
In the past, the festival included an ice cream eating contest and a large parade. The parade tradition which included the Shriners, was discontinued in 2008. The 50th anniversary was celebrated without a parade. For a few years, the festival organized a riverboat tour of Thompson lake. The 2012 venue will close Grand River Ave for two days to accommodate Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels performance. Howell melons are available for tasting and purchase, with up to 200,000 melons sold each year.
While the following is a wonderful story, it is a myth. 'The first Howell melons were grown by August "Gus" Schmitt, a local farmer, who was given the original seeds by an itinerant hobo during the Great Depression. The taste of the melon soon won over other farmers who soon planted the distinctive melon elsewhere in Livingston County. [1] ==External links== The real story is contained in an article from 1964.
Many events were being held online in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Sleeping Beauty", or "Little Briar Rose", also titled in English as "The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods", is a classic fairy tale about a princess who is cursed to sleep for a hundred years by an evil fairy, to be awakened by a handsome prince at the end of them. The good fairy, realizing that the princess would be frightened if alone when she awakens, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace asleep, to awaken when the princess does.
Moomba is held annually in Melbourne, Australia. Run by the City of Melbourne, it is Australia's largest free community festival. The Melburnian tradition is celebrated over four days, incorporating the Labour Day long weekend, from Friday to the second Monday in March. Moomba is culturally important to Melbourne, having been celebrated since 1955, and regularly attracts up to a million people, with a record attendance of 3.8 million set in 2018.
Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States and Canada.
The Saint Paul Winter Carnival is an annual festival in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.
The carnival in Colombia was introduced by the Spaniards. The Colombian carnival has incorporated elements from European culture, and has managed to syncretise, or re-interpret, traditions that belonged to the African and Amerindian cultures of Colombia. There is documentary evidence that the carnival existed in Colombia in the 17th century and had already caused concern to the colonial authorities, who censored the celebrations, especially in the main centers of power such as Cartagena, Bogotá and Popayán. The carnival, therefore, continued its evolution and re-interpretation in the small and at that time unimportant towns where celebrations did not offend the ruling elites. The result was the uninterrupted celebration of carnival festivals in Barranquilla, and other villages along the lower Magdalena River in northern Colombia, and in Pasto, Nariño in the south of the country. In modern times, there have been attempts to introduce the carnival in the capital, Bogotá, in the early 20th century, but it has always failed to gain the approval of authorities. The Bogotá Carnival has had to wait until the 21st century to be resurrected, this time, by the authorities of the city. Colombia is recognized by its large variety of festivals, carnivals and fairs. Most towns have their own, ranging from those celebrating coffee to the ones held in honor of the town's Saint feast. The common characteristics of the festivals are the nomination of a beauty Queen and the setting up of public dance floor.
A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to hold fleet reviews. Fleet reviews may also include participants and warships from multiple navies.
Nisei Week is an annual festival celebrating Japanese American (JA) culture and history in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Nisei means 2nd generation in Japanese, describing the first American born Japanese, a group which the seven-day festival was originally meant to attract. Though named for the Nisei generation, Nisei Week is no longer targeted at Niseis, nor is the festival still contained within a week. Nisei Week Foundation president for 2006, Michelle Suzuki, described the festival as "the opportunity for people of all backgrounds to celebrate Japanese heritage and culture".
The Antiguan Carnival is a celebration of the emancipation of slavery in the country held annually from the end of July to the first Tuesday in August. The most important day is that of the j'ouvert, in which brass and steel bands perform for much of the island's population. Barbuda's Carnival, held in June, is known as Caribana. The Antiguan and Barbudan Carnivals replaced the Old Time Christmas Festival in 1957, with hopes of inspiring tourism in Antigua and Barbuda. Some elements of the Christmas Festival remain in the modern Carnival celebrations.
The San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade is an annual event in San Francisco. Held for approximately two weeks following the first day of the Chinese New Year, it combines elements of the Chinese Lantern Festival with a typical American parade. First held in 1851, along what are today Grant Avenue and Kearny Street, it is the oldest and one of the largest events of its kind outside of Asia, and one of the largest Asian cultural events in North America. The parade route begins on Market Street and terminates in Chinatown.
The Miss Chinatown USA pageant, based on Chinese communities within the U.S., greets delegates around the country. The pageant has been an annual Lunar New Year event since 1958. The winners of this pageant represent the Chinese community and act as ambassadors promoting Chinese culture and heritage.
Neewollah Festival is an annual festival during the last week of October, in Independence, Kansas.
Lanesville Heritage Weekend is a festival in Lanesville, Indiana that celebrates the history and heritage of Indiana farmers and small towns such as Lanesville. It was first held as the Lanesville Bicentennial Celebration, in honor of the United States Bicentennial. In the 21st century, the four-day festival draws an estimated 70,000 visitors each year.
The Daffodil Festival is a regional festival and royalty leadership program. The Grand Floral Parade is held in Pierce County, Washington every April. It consists of a flower parade and a year-long royalty program to select a festival queen from one of the 23 area high schools. Each year, the Royal Court spend thousands of hours promoting education, community pride and volunteerism in the county. In 2012, the Royal Court was named the "Official Ambassadors of Pierce County" by the County Executive and the Pierce County Council.
The North Carolina Watermelon Festival is an annual celebration of the watermelon started in 1957 in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1985 it was relocated to Murfreesboro, North Carolina. The festival features a seed-spitting contest, the crowning of a "Miss Watermelon" and an award for the best/biggest melons.
The Tangomarkkinat is the world's oldest tango festival. It is held early every July in Seinäjoki, Finland. As well as competitions to find the country's best tango singers, composers, and dancers, the festival features public dancing to live music provided by the best Finnish entertainers. Music for public dancing is not restricted to tango: it includes all the dance rhythms popular in Finland: but tango content must, according to the rules, be at least 40%.
The Stanislaus County Fair, located in Turlock, California, opens every year in mid-July. It is the largest event in Stanislaus County. For 10 days, more than 220,000 visitors attend the 72-acre (290,000 m2) fairgrounds. There are nightly celebrity concerts, performances on five stages, and over 30 food concessionaires. The fair shows over 30,000 local talent exhibits, over 1,750 animals, and more than 35 carnival rides.
Sancler Frantz Konzen is a Brazilian model, journalist and beauty queen who won Miss Brazil World 2013 and represented Brazil at Miss World 2013 and placed in the Top 6.
Manila Carnival was an annual carnival festival held in Manila during the early American colonial period up to the time before the Second World War. It was organized by the American colonial administration to celebrate harmonious US and Philippine relations. The Carnival also showcased the commercial, industrial and agricultural progress of the Philippines. The highlight of the event is the crowning of the Carnival Queens.
Phadaeng Nang Ai is a traditional folk tale of Laos and Northeast Thailand about a tragic love triangle featuring Princess Aikham, the daughter of King Ek-Thita, King Phadaeng of Phaphong city and Queen Sida of the ancient Khmer Empire that resulted in the creation of Nong Han Kumphawapi Lake in Udon.
The 2022 Trooping the Colour ceremony was held on Thursday 2 June 2022, as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. Over 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians came together in the traditional parade to mark the Queen's Official Birthday, which usually takes place on the second Saturday of June.