Festivals Of Himachal Pradesh
A cliché but often laced with snow-the year opens with a heady cocktail. Thousands of revelers head to celebrate the New Year at and serves as an inclination of the New Year. It is celebrated sometime in the month of January, the exact date being decided by the Lamas. A private celebration among the Lahauli people, the festivities are dedicated to "Shiskar Apa", the Goddess of wealth in the lamaistic pantheo.
Festivals In Himachal Pradesh
Shivratri
This festival comes in February - March and a fair is held along with for 7-8 days. Many Gods and Goddeses are brought to Mandi town and taken to Mahadev temple. Dance, drama and music follow. A similar celebration of Shivratri is carried out in Baijnath temple in Kangra district.
Pori Festival
The festival is celebrated in Lahaul with remarkable jest. A proper tradition of worshipping where the idol of lord Triloknath is bathed in milk and yogurt, the conch shells ring, and many other rituals are performed, and none is without reason. A butter lamp is lighted up and it burns all day and night. The devotees add butter to the lamp. A procession with a horse is carried out and it is believed that god sits on the back of the horse.
Phulaich
Locally known by the name of 'Ookayand ', meaning the festival of flowers, Phulaich is mainly celebrated in Kinnaur district. On the 16th day of the month of September, 10 men of Rajput clan go to the higher hills to collect flowers and return two days later and then the festival is celebrated.The people gather to see flowers and then the merrymaking begins.
The flowers are so intoxicated that at times people feel giddy in their scent.On the twentieth day of the month, the idol local God 'Deota' is decorated in fine clothes and men, women and children all dressed beautifully dance under the deodar trees. On the twenty third day, the festival ends when the image of deity is brought back to the temple and animals are sacrificed and offered to god.
Lohri
winter chill outdoors contrasts well with the warmth of the fireplace indoors. Festivities take a head start with Lohri celebrations when people, young and old, volunteer to sing folk songs by the side of bonfire at night. Rest of them join dance sequences to the tunes of occasional crackling sound of blazing fire.
There is greater sobriety, but no less joy, when Lohri or Maghi comes along in mid-January. This festival is traditionally celebrated on a mid-winter day and also commemorates the last sowing of the 'Rabi' crops.
Baisakhi
Held on first ' Baisakh'- the 13th April - Baisakhi is one of Himachal's most important festivals. Rooted in the rural agrarian tradition, it bids a final farewell to winter.
At Tattapani near Shimla , at the Rewalsar and Prashar lakes near Mandi, people take purifying dips in the water, numerous village fairs complete with wrestling, dancing and archery are also held on this day.
Halda
A cliché but often laced with snow-the year opens with a heady cocktail. Thousands of revelers head to celebrate the New Year at and serves as an inclination of the New Year. It is celebrated sometime in the month of January, the exact date being decided by the Lamas. A private celebration among the Lahauli people, the festivities are dedicated to "Shiskar Apa", the Goddess of wealth in the lamaistic pantheo
