Heritage Days in Edmonton, Alberta!

I recently visited Edmonton, Alberta to see a close friend and to learn more about this Canadian city. While in Edmonton, we spent a day at the Heritage Days Festival, where the various cultures of Edmonton's residents are celebrated each year. This year, 100 countries were represented at the festival. This amazing festival had tons of tents and stages set up with enough cultural experiences to fill the entire weekend. Heritage Days occurs over a long weekend (Saturday - Monday) once a year, and it is an amazing time for Edmonton citizens to share about their cultures with others and join together to celebrate their heritage. 

Each of the tents was cooking unique food items from their home country, and in order to buy food we purchased tickets that we could use at any of the country pavilions ($1 CAD per ticket). Some of the foods that we tried were:

• Croation fried doughnuts (much like a funnel cake)
• Shanghai noodles
• Mango juice
• Indian curry and samosas
• Jerk chicken from Jamaica

We also were able to watch dances from many countries, such as Russia, Thailand, Eritrea, and Iraq. The dancers were wearing their traditional native clothing and this was a great cultural experience. I'm sure some of the dancers were really hot, though, because some of them come from very cold countries and their native clothing included fur hats and long stockings! 

One of my favorite performances to watch is shown above and included a drum group who led a very energetic performance. They were really enjoying what they were doing! Their smiles were contagious and it made me want to join along. 

If you are Edmonton during August, make sure to check and see if you will be there during Heritage Days. This was a great way to get to people-watch and learn more about the cultures that make up this great Canadian city.