Advent Botany 2015 – Day 23: Night of the Radishes

By Emma Cooper

Nativity in carved radish

When you think about Christmas plants you probably think about holly and ivy, possibly Christmas trees and poinsettias, and maybe even Brussels sprouts and parsnips. But I bet you don’t think about radishes. And yet, the humble radish (Raphanus sativus) plays an important role in the Christmas festivities in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Every year, on December 23rd, they have a Christmas night market. This was traditionally when people bought the food items they would need for Christmas, but since 1897 it has been a very special event – La Noche de las Rábanos, the night of the radishes.

By AlejandroLinaresGarcia (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By AlejandroLinaresGarcia (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By AlejandroLinaresGarcia (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

A carved Radish display (By AlejandroLinaresGarcia (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

The townspeople of Oaxaca have developed radish carving into a fine art, and the night market has developed into a fiesta during which more than a hundred radish tableaux are displayed, with everything from the Nativity to the Last Supper carved into radishes. The best display wins a prize of around… Read more at The Unconventional Gardener.

Advent Botany 2015 Day 22, Day 24

Index to Advent Botany 2015