Nyree McFarlane

Festivities are under way for Nowruz, also known as the Persian New Year. Believed to have been celebrated for more than 3,000 years, the festival is held on the spring equinox to usher in the blooming season. Around 300 million people celebrate the occasion, though the start dates can vary between countries.

For 10 days starting Sunday, Onam celebrations will take place across the South Indian state of Kerala and among Malayali communities around the world. The important Keralite harvest festival falls in the Malayalam calendar month of Chingam, which corresponds to August or September in the Gregorian calendar. This year, it will be celebrated from Sunday to August 31.

The first Met Gala was held in 1948 as a fund-raising dinner for The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The gala began as a fairly subdued affair, with no red carpet in sight — it was more about society types in cocktail dresses making small talk and (hopefully) getting out their cheque books. But in the mid-1970s, fashion editor Diana Vreeland came on to the scene, and it evolved into the celebrity-filled fashion smorgasbord we know today.