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India is a land of
numerous and perpetual festival are a result of intermingling of
different religions and communities. While some festivals are
devoted to god and goddesses, their reincarnations other are in
celebration of wind ,air, moon, sun, rain, fire, etc.
India festivals will take
you for Holy dip in the numerous rivers, or cover you with warm
scented coloured water, swing you sky high, give you elephant or
camel rides, and invites you to joyous day and night-long singing,
dancing and feasting.
Varied and brilliant like
the colours of the rainbow, or the multicoloured hues of twilight,
they have come down through the ages, making life in India seem like
one long celebration.
The
sun is eclipsed and for millions of people it calls for a holy dip.
The moon reaches its full glory
and the events calls for a feast. The rain -laden clouds come, to  remind you of Lord Indra, and the
advent of the monsoon is welcomed with gay abandon. Since it does
not rain, nor do crops ripen at the same time all over this land,
you will find the occasion celebrated at different places at
different times. Of course, the reason for this is not just the time
factor, but differences in the mythology behind the festival. So,
the 10-th day festival of Dussehra starts in Kullu the day it
finishes in the other parts of the country.
There seems not to be a single day, or
any change
inn
ature
which the Indian calendar
will
not
recognize
as an occasion for the celebration of the
beautiful mystery of PRAKRITI or Nature, the  mother of all creation.
So, it is that, in the South , the festival of Pongal, or Sanskrit
celebrates the harvest, and heralds the onset of summer, with its
longer days, and shorter nights. In North India it is the festival
of LOHRI, featuring dancing and celebrations around a bonfire, which
marks the end of winter and welcomes warmer weather.Another festival widely
celebrated across North India is Baisakhi. There are number of
reasons for celebrating this days: It marks the harvest in Punjab,
so it is a day of thanks giving and homage to Mother Earth; it marks
the New Year of the BIKRAMI calendar; and it is the anniversary of
Guru Gobind Singh's initiation of Sikhs into the Panth at Anandpur
Sahib.
Teej is a festival which
welcomes the monsoon. It is celebrated mostly in Rajasthan, where
the arrival or absence of the monsoon is of utmost importance. The
festival is essentially celebrated by women, who dress in bright
green clothes and ride improvised swings hung from trees.
Yet another harvest
festival- this one native to Kerala- is Onam. Onam is widely Known
for the snake-boat races that are its most famous feature.
All these festivals are
dedicated to the harvest- yet these are only a few of the
better-known ones. But in India, where life is still closely
associated with nature, it is not nature alone which is the cause
for celebration. Beneath all this lies an active interaction between
man and his environment, which is not merely confined to cycles of
seasons and crops, but is also linked to man's higher invisible
association with the Cosmos.
So, some festivals are
dedicated to gods and goddesses and to their incarnations and
reincarnations  for example, Diwali celebrates the return of Rama,
Prince of Ayodhya, after fourteen long years of exile. But the
festival is also dedicated to the worship of Lakshami, the goddess
of wealth, and-in eastern India- to goddess Kali, the consort of
Lord Shiva. In India, Christmas celebrating in the birth of
Christ-and Easter-celebrating his resurrection-are also observed.
The Sikhs celebrate the births of their leaders Guru Nanak and Guru
Gobind Singh, while Muslims observe Id and Muharram.
So if it
seems as through every day in India is marked by some
celebration, it must be remembered that it is because of the inter-mingling
of different cultures.
And it is this very
intermingling of the people that makes India more than a collection
of states. With every passing years that the people of different
regions take their cultures with them to other parts of the country,
India becomes a culturally richer and more diverse land.
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