If you're a jaded urbanite accustomed to strawberries in December from the corner market, you might find it hard to imagine that an entire town would shut down to celebrate the harvest of figs or a regional wine grape. But one way to tap into a region's culture, its collective agrarian subconscious, is to plan trips according to seasonal food festivals. Here are some highlights from around the world:

Spring

Easter, Greece
Easter in Greece falls the Sunday after the first full moon of the vernal equinox minutes before herds of Teva-wearing Aussies drink up all the beer. From the dark empty streets on Easter eve you can see candlelight from the tiny windows of packed, whitewashed churches. If you linger conspicuously enough after mass, chances are good that you will be invited into someone's home to break the Lenten fast with traditional holiday dishes like spanakópitta (spinach pie), tsouréki (sweet Greek Easter bread), and red-dyed hard-boiled eggs. It's customary for participants to tap their red-dyed egg against someone else's to see whose is the last to crack. The bearer of the most resilient egg is guaranteed one year of good luck. Festivities continue on Sunday with roasted lamb souvláki (skewered chicken or beef), wine, and dancing in the streets.

Galungan, Bali
In honor of Galungan, an annual celebration of the triumph of virtue (dharma) over evil (adharma), the Balinese beckon their ancestral spirits for a brief family visit. The success of this important festival depends on how well the living entice and entertain the dead with food, dance, and festive garb. Staked in front of every house are offerings attached to huge bamboo poles, including coconut leaves, sheaves of rice, brightly colored flowers, cakes, fruits, sugarcane, betel leaves, and beans.

Vidalia Festival, Georgia, April 26-30
Sweet enough to eat like an apple, the Vidalia onion has gotten its proper annual dues since it was discovered back in 1931. Cooking classes, cook-offs, and onion-eating contests dominate, though there's also a rodeo and street dancing to serve as a reprieve from institutionalized halitosis.

Summer

Gilroy Garlic Festival, California, July 28-30
After having read about a garlic festival in Arleux, France, a hamlet that had anointed itself the "Garlic Capital of the World," Gilroy festival founder Rudy Melone set out to prove that the title in fact belonged to his own small northern California town. And he did just that: The weekend-long fest of garlic-encrusted, -infused, and -marinated edibles, supplemented by arts and crafts and live music, attracts about 125,000 pilgrims each year.

Crop Over, Barbados, mid-July
In honor of the tallgrass that has sustained the local economy for centuries, Barbadians celebrate the end of the sugarcane harvest with this so-called "jump-up" a street carnival filled with dancing, calypso music and parades. Literally the dance version of festivals, locals carry the party out for five weeks culminating in Kadooment Day, a grand finale with costumed parade.

Preuvenemint-Maastricht, Netherlands, August 24-27
Some 200,000 people wash down their eats with 50,000 liters of beer each year as they make their way through this huge international food-tasting festival. Don't miss such local Limburg region specialties as rabbit plum stew and vlaai, a sweet, savory flan-like dish of rice and fruit.

Fall

Oktoberfest, Germany, September/October
On the second-to-last Saturday in September, the Lord Mayor of Munich kicks off the notorious beer bonanza by shouting "It's tapped!" marking the first of five million liters to be consumed over the 16 days of the festival. In addition to the requisite busty barmaids wielding 10 brews at a time, the carnival bustles with rides, food stalls smoking with grilled sausage, and a dozen beer tents, each with its own entertainment. On opening morning, Oktoberfest brewers and barkeepers parade in horse-drawn carriages. After the first day of drinking, pilgrims are entertained by the procession of floats and festooned oxen from all over Bavaria, regional and international bands, and folk dancers.

American Royal Barbecue Contest, Missouri, Early October
Despite playful names like Spice Grills and Seven Basted Bubbas, the 300 entrants to the world's biggest barbecue contest are deadly serious. With $62,000 in cash and prizes on the line, the smoky Kansas City event attracts some 50,000 onlookers who come for the sport, the exquisite 'cue samples, and the adjoining BBQ expo.

Vegetarian Festival, Thailand, Mid-October
In addition to heaps of meatless offerings, the annual Vegetarian Festival, hosted by the Chinese community of Phuket, is a five-day marathon of Chinese opera performances, fire-walking, knife-blade climbing, and other masochistic rituals. The island's ethnic Chinese go on a nine-day soul-purification diet. Participants believe that it's only then that their clean bodies are ripe for visitation by the "nine spirits" that endow them with powers to withstand faith-testing skewers, knives, swords, axes, and hot coals.