Mt. Abu
In
these fairs and festivals thousands of colorfully garbed villagers are assembled in one
place. These melas and celebrations often feature vibrant and intricate dances involving
dozens of participants. Fairs and festival may be purely commercial in nature, such as the
Nagaur fair, purely religious such as Gangaur, which pays honor to the love between the
Shiva and Parvati. A combination of both, such as the Pushkar camel fair, which is held at
the sacred Pushkar Lake or these fairs and festivals can be seasonal celebrating the
seasons. Whatever their motive, fairs and festivals afford complete social function,
enabling villagers from remote regions to meet and combine, marriage alliances to be
contracted, livestock deals to be struck and rural issues such as market prices are to be
discussed.At all festivals much attention is paid to the dresses of animal participants same as the human ones. Camels are adorned with colorful tassels and bridles, magnificently embroidered or mirrored rugs and ornaments known as "Gorbandhs", which are made by new brides, for their husband's camels.
Rajasthan’s oldest and most well known festival is the Pushkar camel fair, which is held annually in November at the small town of Pushkar, near Ajmer. This fair fulfills both a religious and commercial role enabling thousands of devotees to bathe in the sacred Pushkar Lake on the auspicious date of Kartik Purnima. It also provides a temporary market place for traders in livestock to parade their complicated bedecked and groomed beasts before potential buyers.
Some festivals have been established purely to attract overseas visitors, such as Jaisalmer’s Desert Festival, which is held each year in January / Feb. corresponding with the peak tourist season. Its an occasion which shouldn’t be missed, with villagers and towns people donning traditional garb, dozens of elaborately decorated camels, traditional dances and music, camel polo matches and more. This is an ideal times to visit the sand dunes near Jaisalmer, when traditional musicians attempt to outdo each other in musical virtuosity and camel races take place across the dunes. The Mr. Desert competition attracts swag of mustachioed hopefuls.
Festivals which are celebrated nationwide such as Holi, Diwali, appears, when celebrated in this state with that curiously Rajasthani element and zest which sets them apart from the rest of the country. Holi, for example, the festival of colors, which takes place in Late Feb. / March truly lives up to its name in Rajasthan, where the flinging of colored dye achieves new heights of spirited abandon.
Westerners are, of course not immune to the revelry. Men and women, old and young, rich and poor everyone enters into the spirit of Holi, with faces, hair and clothes smeared in Pink, Yellow and green dye.
Weddings are also celebrated with typical Rajasthan enthusiasm. Traditional dances play a large role in the celebration of religious festivals such as Navratri and Dussehra, during both of which women dance the Ghoomer. During Holi, the Bhil tribal people dance the Gir. In the months of August or September, in small village of Ramdevra in western Rajasthan, female dancers perform the "Teratial" in honor of the local deity Ramdevji.