Summer Calendar for Johannesburg, South Africa

by: Sarah Maple
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Word Count: 444

South Africa’s most populated city is awash with traditional celebrations and cultural festivities the whole year round. As the city gets ever closer to the honour of hosting the 2010 World Cup, more and more eyes are on the city to see how well it can handle such a festival atmosphere – and summer 2009 is the final run-through before the area becomes the centre of international football. That said, with airlines offering cheap flights to Johannesburg and a calendar of great events planned for the summer, 2009 is likely to be a great year for visitors.

As with many other locations across the world, June kicks off with International Children’s Day – a day to benefit and promote the welfare of children. Similar ideals are reflected just two weeks later on the 16th with Youth Day. This is South Africa’s national celebration of the rights of young people, and was established in order to remember the youngsters who lost their lives during a march in Soweto in 1976. 20th June sees the recently combined Africa Refugee Day into an internationally leaning celebration: World Refugee Day – an annually themed festivity.

The two most significant days for Johannesburg during July are World Population Day and Nelson Mandela’s Birthday. The former has been established in order to raise awareness of the global population issues, and is particularly relevant in the fast-developing city. Nelson Mandela’s Birthday is a more outright celebration however with his home city ready to come out and celebrate – despite the online scam in 2008 which sought to defraud money by offering members of the public an invitation to Mandela’s 91st birthday (for a fee of £450).

In August the two most significant celebrations fall on the same day, the 9th. National Women’s Day is a public holiday to commemorate the march of 20,000 women in 1956 protesting against amendments to the Urban Areas Act. The day has also given birth to the slogan of women’s courage, “You strike a woman, you strike a rock.” Today, the day is also shared with the human rights commemoration: International Day of the World's Indigenous People.

September and the end of the summer is one of the most active times for Johannesburg. Throughout the whole month Arts Alive is a celebration of live music, theatre, cinema, literature and stand-up. The festival is thus one of diversity, alongside jazz performances and poetry readings, DJs spin electronica beats and students host their own film festival. In amongst all this September is also considered South Africa’s Heritage Month.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/profile/sarah-maple-4310.html

About the Author

Sarah Maple writes about how to book cheap flights and package holidays.

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