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Nobody has counted the total number of fairs and festivals celebrated all through the country,but a rough estimate of 365 a year would not be wide off the mark.There are religious festivals , those that mark the passing of the seasons, and those that can be termed cultural events.Some are celebrated in the isolated corners of the country,largely unnoticed elsewhere;others transcends the barriers

 of creed and are joyously celebrated all over the country. 

Diwali: the festival of lights, roughly mark the advent of winter.All over the country millions of homes are lit by rows of tiny oil lamps.Prayers are said to invoke the blessing of Laxmi,the goddess wealth .Friends and business associates of every faith exchange gaily wrapped boxes of sweets.

Christmas is celebrated with much fanfare ,especially in the cities where people of all faiths attend midnight church services and christmas parties, and santa claus visits all good children in the country.

Dusera:Country comes alive at Durgapuja especially in Kolkotta and cuttack ,when hundred of images of the goddess are carried aloft through streets to be immersed ,after nine days of celebrations, in the river.The religious aspect is just one facet of the celebration----the citi's best theatrical companies put up plays, shops offer special discounts on everything from clothing to food.At the western end of the country, Gujurat too celebrates another aspect of worship of Goddess Durga.The most visible sign is the all woman dance,the garba, which carries on through out the night.Impromptu 'societies' are formed in which people of all faiths join in .Backdrops range from the rural to the ultra modern; the attire of the dancers of each group is colourful bodices with swirling skirts.

RathaYatra-The passing of time has certainly not dimmed the pomp and cerimony of the intense religious aura that sorrounds the annual rites for one of the most dynamic temple festivals in the world.The Rathyatra of Lord jagannath of Puri is one of the most important festivals not only for the orissan but also for the whole human race.The jagannath temple is one of the four holiest places (Dhams) in India for the hindus and the chariot procession(Rathayatra)every year is a culmination of the religious importance , the deities enjoy.The sheer sizes of the chariots are enough to fire the imagination.The enormous rathas,hoisted on huge wheels are hulled by thousands of frenetic devotees to the Gundicha ghar, where lord Jaggannath, his sisters Subhadra and brother Balabhadra rest for a week.The whole process is repeated when the images are transported back to the jaganntah temple amidst a great deal of color and frenzy activity.

Holi is the festival in spring when crowds of merrymakers spray coloured powder on one another in an atmosphere of exuberance without any barriers of social status .

Monastery festivals held in sikkim and himalayan belt, attended by men and women wearing a profusion of torquoise and silver jewellery.With a backdrop of colossal silk paintings ,masked dancers perform ageold plays depicting the victory of good over evil.The hemis festival in Ladhak is perhaps the best known of these,though by no means the only one.

Rural festivals: For the people of rural of India , a fair must have three attributes --it should be accessible, there should be shoppings to the heart content, and it should provide an opportunity to meet long lost friends and relatives.This in brief what rural fairs are about , whether it is best known .

pushkar camel fair in Rajasthan, the Tarnetar fair in Gujurat , or the largely unnoticed one, the tribal festivals in the tribal hills of orissa .Pushkar ,is now intrnationally popular, it has religious, social and commercial, significance for the rural dwellers who attend it.A bath in the pushkar lake signifies ritual purification,the thousand of camels brought to sell here forms the commercial aspect as do the dazzling rows of stalls.In the life of a village dweller who does not have much time for social visiting ,Pushkar is a fine place to catch up on old acquaintances.

Like Pushkar, the tribal festivals and fares in orissa,are the unparalleled glimpse of India for the camera wielding tourist.Kite flying festival in Ahmedabad is also quite popular,which is the revivals of popular celebrations Makar sankranti. Dhanu yatra( the world's largest open stage thetre)is colourfully obseved at Baragarh(orissa).It relates to the episode of Lord Krishna's visit to mathura .The town of Bargarh becomes Mathura,the river Jira becomes yamuna and the village Amapalli becomes Gopa.Different acts of the Puranic descriptions are enacted in the right places and the spectators move from place to place to witness these variegated performances.

Dance festivals:owe their popularity not to tradition but to ongoing endeavours to make them cultural landmarks.Some of the examples are the Puri beach festival, Konark dance festival,Khajuraho dance festival. There are several forms of classical dance that have their origins in various states across the country---all are a form of religious worship.Every dance form has a precise vocabulary of emotions-love,yearning,sorrows etc-and these are displayed by gestures that involve the body and fingers, face and eyes.Thus every movement that a dancer makes in the course of an hour long recital has its specific meanings.So the dance and music festivals offers an unique opportunity to witness the live performance of emminent dancers on stage.

Please see your itinerary section and plan your trip accordingly to coincide your tour programme with the fairs and festivals.

Fair & Festivals with Dates.