Radish sculptures. Drew Leavy / flickr / 2006 / CC BY-SA 2.0
December 23rd is the Night of the Radishes (“Noche de Rabanos”) in the Mexican city of Oaxaca.
It is a festival where radishes are carved into small sculptures.
The radishes are specially grown to be larger than normal, to give the sculptors something to work with. They are harvested around the 18th of December, to allow time for the carving.
The prize winner wins 12,000 pesos.
There was already a radish-carving tradition in Oaxaca in the 1800s. People would carve them for Christmas and sell them. In 1897, the mayor of Oaxaca declared that the night would officially be the Night of the Radishes.
#NightOfTheRadishes
See also: Radishes
Sources
Galloway, Lindsey. Mexico’s whimsical Night of the Radishes. BBC. 22 December 2014. Accessed November 2020 at http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20141217-mexicos-whimsical-night-of-the-radishes
2014 Noche de Rabanos in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. Alejandro Linares Garcia / wikimedia / 2014 / CC BY 4.0