Heritage Days Are Here Again

The Heritage Festival (or, Heritage Days as us long-time Edmontonians know it) is likely my favourite of all our summer festivals. The combination of ethnic music, dance, dress, and food really does it for me. I also enjoy bargain hunting for cool, inexpensive trinkets. This year I got two bracelets: a stretch wooden bracelet with anarchy symbols, the likeness of Che Guevara, and other subversive images, and a magnetic stretch band with Jesus and some of the saints pictured. I am not into saint veneration, but think of these images as art. It apparently seems to be all the rage now, I think because a main character in the teen vampire flick Twilight wears something similar. I also got a small, colourful bag at the Ibero-American tent (a friend of mine was working there) and my name spelled out in pictures at Korea. This is a Korean art form and I was amazed at how quickly the artist used these little brushes to make the pictures. "P" was made using a butterfly and rainbow - if you know my music, you'll get the symbolism of that! Of course, I gorged myself on ethnic treats, mostly from South America (empanadas, churros, flautas), but also made sure to grab my favourites from Afghanistan (kebab, bolani). Here is a look at what I saw and what I ate!