【推荐1】For most people in the West, Valentine’s Day (情人节) is celebrated on February 14, but here in Japan it’s on March 14—exactly one month after Valentine’s Day—called White Day.

To really understand what White Day is all about, you have to understand what Valentine’s Day in Japan is like. Japanese Valentine’s Day is all about men getting presents. Japanese women are usually too shy to show their love, though it might not be true today. Valentine’s Day is a great chance to let women show their feelings. Does it sound good to you? Don’t get too excited when you get chocolate from Japanese girls! They give chocolate not only to their loved ones, but also to men such as bosses (老板) and male (男性的) friends. Men should return gifts to women on White Day.

On both days, chocolate is the gift of choice. More often, the colour of the chocolate is white because of the name of the day. You can also buy flowers, candies, or cookies.

The Japanese first celebrated White Day in 1978. Now it is also celebrated in South Korea and Taiwan, China.

【推荐2】Brazilians love to throw a party, as can be seen with their world-famous annual carnival （狂欢节）, However, there are also several other fun festivals throughout the year in Brazil.

Oktoberfest

The Germanic roots of the south of Brazil brought this traditional German festival to Brazil, where it has become one of the most popular beer festivals in the country. Held in the middle of October every year in Blumenau, the two-week festival celebrates typical German cuisine and plenty of beer. There are also traditional folk costumes that most people wear with great enthusiasm and lots of singing, dancing and street parties.

Festa Junina

Festa Junina is celebrated all over Brazil for the entire month of June as an annual celebration of Saint John. It celebrates country life with typical clothes, food and dances inside a large tent made of raw materials, with decorations such as colored flags, changeable table cloths and balloons. The most common clothes are changeable shirts and straw hats with painted spots on the face. The dance is like square dancing and the food is one of the best parts of the party.

Festival de Cachaca

Held in the town of Paraty is the annual Festival de Cachaca which is dedicated to cachaca, the national alcohol made from sugar cane. This festival gives you the chance to try cachaca. Held over a long weekend in August, there are shows of samba and food trucks. It's also a great opportunity to get to know the beautiful town of Paraty.

Parintins Folklore Festival

The festival held annually in Parintins is the second largest in Brazil after carnival. It goes over a period of three days at the end of June and celebrates the Amazonian legend of a resurrected （复活的）ox. The main attraction of the festival is the competition between the two teams Garantido and Caprichoso that compete to retell the story of the ox through a mix of dances and singing.

【推荐3】Christmas is coming, and it is time to warm yourself and head out to see some festive lights. There are plenty of choices when it comes to following a light path as part of your Christmas celebrations.

Oxford Street

Oxford Street’s festive lights are a treat for the eyes this year. However you’ll have to pick your hours carefully as the lights—which we returned on at the start of November—are only on for eight hours a day this year, from 3-11 pm, in the wake of the rising energy costs the country is facing. It is expected this will reduce energy usage by up to two thirds compared to previous years, when the lights have been on for 24 hours through November and December.

Kew Garden

One of the most famous light paths of the season, Christmas at Kew offers a full-on festive experience with over 2 km of lights to walk through. Along the way you’ll have the chance to sample festive food and drink, and possibly even say hello to Santa himself.

Regent Street

Regent Street’s lights are on the theme of The Spirit Of Christmas this year, bringing golden angels to the shopping street. The lights, which cover Regent Street and the St James neighbourhoods, were turned on on November 9, and like the Oxford St lights are turned on between 3 and 11 pm.

Covent Garden

A visit to Covent Garden will certainly get you in the festive spirit this year, with the central London destination offering a whole lot of lights—from 11 am until midnight every day until January 3. Visitors can also enjoy daily snow showers as well as festive food treats and heated wine—with over 40 different varieties there.

【推荐2】“Who loves pizza?” is a question you almost never have to an American. A better question might be “Who doesn’t love pizza?”   Now, there’s a place for all pizza lovers to gather: the Museum of Pizza. It can be found in America’s pizza capital—New York City.

A company called Nameless Network came up with the idea for the museum, known as “MoPi” for short. “It’s often that the simplest ideas are the best. The company used the popularity of pizza as a way to get people “looking at art and hearing about history in a different way,” said Alexandra Serio, who is with Nameless Network. Many kinds of artists were asked to create art works about pizza. They, in turn, provided large photographs, sculptures and huge installations. So far, the museum has had lots of visitors. More than 6,000 people came through the door when it opened this month.

Visitors seem to love MoPi’s bright colors, which makes it perfect for taking selfies and other photographs for social media.

Nene Raye, from New Jersey, was a recent visitor. Raye didn’t expect to see what she saw—and she was happy about that. “Honestly, I thought it would be, like, more of a traditional museum,” She said. But instead, Raye got some of everything. “So You get a little bit of education and then some fun, which I love,” she said.

Lydia Melendez made plans to visit the pizza museum in April. For her, the experience was worth the wait. “I thought it was going to be kind of boring,” she said. She had imagined walking in and finding books on how to make pizza. But she was very pleased when her actual experience was different than what she had imagined.

While pizza may be what has captured the interest of crowds, the point of the Museum has been to help people exposed to fine arts world.