This holiday is unique even by Mexican standards. On the night before Christmas on the main square of Oaxaca you can see a huge number of elegant sculptures made from radishes. Root crops are grown especially for this holiday, it intends to ensure that the radishes take the most bizarre shape and grow to an incredible size - some reach half a meter in length.

After defeating the leader Montezuma in the war, Marquis del Valle de Oaxaca - Hernan Cortes became the owner of this Mexican plateau. It was on these lands that the marquis decided to cultivate radish. The soil in these places was not so suitable for growing crops, because it was mixed with a lot of rubble and stones.

For the first time a special honor radish was awarded in 1889, when the most interestingly shaped roots were put under Christmas near the governor's house . Radish, decorated with flowers, coniferous branches and moss attracted unprecedented attention. Since then this year is considered to be the day of the foundation of the "Radish Night" festival

In time, the land cultivated by peasants began to give more even and equal root crops year after year. This disappointed the locals and they again used rubble and stones to create bizarre forms of radish.

Now the merry holiday "Radish Night" lasts several hours and takes place on the main square in Oaxaca. In the hands of skilled craftsmen radishes are transformed into statues of saints, buildings and figures from which genre scenes are composed.

Radish Night in Mexico