Festivals around the world, month by month

Mexico's most important patriotic holiday. It remembers the morning of 16 September 1810, when the priest Miguel Hidalgo rang his church bell in Dolores and called the people to rise against Spanish rule.

On the day: On the night of 15 September huge crowds fill the Zócalo and town squares. The president rings Hidalgo's bell from the balcony of the National Palace and shouts "¡Viva México!" three times, then come fireworks; on the 16th there are parades.

Founded in 1932, it is the world's oldest film festival. Screenings take place in the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido, a long thin island in the Venice lagoon.

On the day: Film stars and directors walk the red carpet in front of crowds of fans and photographers, and at the end a jury awards the top prize, the Golden Lion.

A Buddhist festival to honour the spirits of the ancestors, who are believed to return home for a few days. It is not an official holiday, but many people get time off and travel back to their family home.

On the day: Families clean the graves of their ancestors and light fires or lanterns to guide the spirits home and, at the end, back again. In the evenings whole neighbourhoods join the Bon Odori dance.