Washington Lawyer - August 2017 - 33

GLOBAL & DOMESTIC OUTLOOK

ICELAND
Verslunarmannahelgi (merchants' weekend) is a holiday on
the first Monday in August (and all through the preceding
weekend) similar to our Labor Day weekend. A traditional
celebration of merchants (a small minority of Icelanders), it's
Iceland's last summer hurrah and an excuse for Icelanders
to enjoy camping, bonfires, vodka, and útihátíð (outdoor
music festivals). Generally, it's the biggest weekend for
domestic travel for Icelanders. For the not so outdoorsy,
there's Innipúkinn (the indoor imp - the Icelandic word
for a couch potato), a low-key urban festival in Reykjavík.
GERMANY
Every August, Berlin hosts a three-day salute to beer - the
International Berlin Beer Festival. Over 85 different countries,
340 breweries, and 2,200 different varieties of beer are represented. Navigate the Bier Meile (Beer Mile), a two-kilometer
stretch of beer tents and stalls with 18 different stages for
live performances. (The Bavarian oompah bands sound
better after a few beers.)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
On the last Saturday in August, the 17th Street Festival
celebrates the diversity of the 17th Street corridor. The
festival features stage performances, live music, and drag
shows throughout the day. With a hundred restaurants and
retail vendors, there's plenty of artisan crafts and food, as
well as community organization tents. Bring the kids to
the designated kid zone and enjoy the moon bounce,
ball crawl, face painting, and games throughout the day.
You can even bring a pet, or adopt one on site.
BARBADOS
The Crop Over Festival in Barbados is a traditional holiday
celebrating the end of the sugarcane harvest. The first
Monday in August is a national holiday that culminates with
the Grand Kadooment in which Barbadians enjoy parades,
street music, and fireworks. The tradition goes back to 1780,
but ended after World War II with the decline of the sugar
industry. In 1974 Barbados revived the celebration for
tourists and locals.

SCOTLAND
For three weeks in August, comedy and culture reign at two
of the world's largest arts festivals - the Edinburgh Festival,
for classical music and opera; and the Fringe festival, which
features performance art and comedy. The entire city of
Edinburgh is overrun with street performers, classical music,
opera, theatre, stand-up comedy, and dance. As if that
wasn't enough going on, August is also the month for the
Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a mass performance of
bagpipers and drum corps.
EUGENE, OREGON
They get a lot of rain in Oregon, which may be why the
unofficial goodwill ambassador of Eugene is the slug.
Every August, during the Eugene Celebration, the city
crowns a "raining" SLUG Queen (an acronym for the
Society for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous
Gastropod). There is a slug parade complete with
a slug float, presided over by the Slug Queen.
CHINA, HONG KONG, TAIWAN, SINGAPORE,
& MALAYSIA
In parts of Asia, August is "Ghost Month," according to
Taoist folk tradition, a celebration that falls on the 15th day
of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar.
Similar to Halloween, Ghost Month is when the gates of
hell open and spirits leave the afterworld to roam, scaring
people or settling scores. The superstitious don't go out
after dark, whistle, or walk near water. (Apparently, ghosts
are known to drown people in August by pulling them
into rivers.) To appease the unsettled ghosts and to honor
their own ancestors, families feed ghosts on the 15th day
of the month, a celebration known as Yu Lan, or "Hungry
Ghost Festival." People leave out food and burn offerings
like paper money for the spirits to use in the afterlife.
FINLAND
If you enjoy a good guitar solo, minus the guitar, check
out the Air Guitar World Championships held each year
in Oulu. According to the organizers, "wars would end,
climate change [would] stop and all bad things disappear,
if all the people in the world played the air guitar." The
Air Guitar World Championships are part of the Oulu
August Festival.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Lawyer - August 2017