Night of the Radishes

The Night of the Radishes, known locally as Noche de Rábanos, is a traditional festival of a thoroughly popular character. Growers and flower farmers show designs made from radishes, everlasting flowers and corn husk.

It is also a competition: entrants carve oversized radishes into scenes that compete for prizes in several categories. Most entries are scenes built from several radishes, and nativity scenes are the most traditional subject. As the growing city took over farmland, the municipal government set aside land near El Tequio Park to grow radishes specially for the event.

The festival takes place in Oaxaca de Juárez, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. It usually falls on 23 December, and the 2026 date is an estimate rather than a confirmed one. No details of how to attend are available yet, so check with the organiser, the Secretaría de Cultura, before planning around it.

The exhibition itself lasts only a few hours. It is held in and around the zócalo, the city's main square.

Several accounts agree that the tradition has its roots in the market held on Christmas Eve.

As background, radishes were brought to Mexico by the Spanish, notably the friars. During the colonial period, people started carving them with religious themes linked to the yearly Christmas market.

The formal radish-carving competition was created in 1897 by the city's mayor, Francisco Vasconcelos, and it has run every year since then.

Although the show is brief, it brings out practically the whole city to the zócalo area, where people come to admire the entrants' creativity.