7 Unusual Festivals in India

ndia is a land known for festivals and these splendorous movements add colors to the rich Indian heritage. Indians welcome the seasons with festivals and celebrate harvests, full moon, rain, various religious occasions, remembrance of various gurus, saints etc, everything is a celebration and festivals are never too rare in the country. When festivals are so common in the country, a few among them stand out and are really unusual by the way they are celebrated.

Karni Mata Festival

Karni Mata Festival

This festival is celebrated twice a year in honor of Godness Karni Mata, the tutelary deity of the Bikaner royal house. The fair happens in the little desert citadel of Deshnoke, Bikaner in Rajasthan. The 600 year-old Karni Mata temple is home to thousands of rats that are considered sacred and are offered food and protection. The famous temple is devoted to an ancient mystic who is believed to be the reincarnation of the Goddess Durga and the most interesting factor is that the souls of Karni Mata's devotees are said to reside in the rats. Thousands of devotees flock at  Deshnoke during the time of Navratras, in April/May and October/November and the celebration is on the on the ninth day of Navratras. Believers offer food to the deity and among continuous chants of hymns and prayers, pujas are performed. The believers consider its auspicious to consume what the holy rats have salivated over and letting them scamper over your feet is believed to bring good luck.

Kila Raipur Rural Olympics

Kila Raipur Rural Olympics

One of India’s most prominent rural sports festival, Kila Raipur Rural Olympics is held annually in Kila Raipur (near Ludhiana), in Punjab. The event has gained enormous popularity over the past six decades that it attracts competitors from all over the world. When its February, Ludhiana turns out to be a destination for hundreds of sports enthusiasts from different parts of the world. The three-day long event is participated by more than 4000 sports men and woman who are watched over by a huge crowd of 1 million spectators. Animals such as dogs, bullocks, camels, mules etc are seen doing professional sports items. What attracts the most is the highly adrenaline-pumping bullock cart race, the winner of which is eligible for a prize money worth around Rs.200,000. Horse dance, dog race, camel race, tug-of-war and tractor race are some of the other interesting events. The excitement pumps up at the site of some real time actions of vigor such as pulling cars with ears or teeth, lifting bicycles with teeth, riding bicycle with burning tyres and many other daredevil stunts. The festival also includes a variety of cultural festivals with leading folk singers, and Gidha players and Bhangra.

Pushkar Camel Fair

Pushkar Camel Fair

In October/November every year a surprising 50,000 camels unite on the small holy town of Pushkar, in Rajasthan for the Pushkar Camel Fair. For five days the camels are dressed up, paraded, traded, shaved, entered into beauty contests, and raced. A huge carnival is held, with a display of musicians, snake charmers, magicians, dancers, acrobats, and carousel rides to entertain the crowd.

Pushkar is about 45 minutes drive over a hill from Ajmer. The place can be reached by buses and taxis and Ajmer is readily accessible by train from many places in India. A similar camel fair is held in Bikaner in December where the fair kicks off with a procession of camels decorated in their finest attire, with camel beauty pageants, camel races, and camel dancing. The fair ends with entertainment by Rajasthani folk artists, and fireworks.

Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna Janmashtami is also known as Govinda. It is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The festival brings to light young males forming a human pyramid and climbing on top of each other to reach a pot of curd. The clay pots containing butter, curd, and money are strung up high from buildings and the human pyramids are formed and the boys compete with each other to reach the pots and break them open. This festivity represents Lord Krishna's love for butter and curd, which were the foods he most often enjoyed eating.

Though the festival takes place throughout India, it is best experienced in Mumbai. Competitions take place at innumerable locations throughout the city, and they can get quite intense. The human pyramids go up as high as 40 feet and with as many as eight layers. But, many competitors also suffer bone injuries each year in their attempts to win.

Pulikkali

Pulikkali

Pulikkali happens on the fourth day of Onam celebrations at Swaraj Round in Thrissur, an unforgettable view where tigers and hunters in bright yellow, red, and black dance to the beats of instruments like Udukku and Thakil. The literal meaning of Pulikkali is ‘tiger play’ or ‘tiger dance’ and the festival dates back over 200 years. It is believed that Maharaja Rama Varma Sakthan Thampuran introduced the folk art, who wanted to celebrate Onam with a dance that reflected the wild and macho spirit of the force. It’s a long and tiring process to get the bodies painted as yellow, green, red and orange striped tigers.

Nag Panchami:

Nag Panchami

Nag Panchami is a festival of snakes and is all about the worship of snakes, which are especially dug out and gathered for the occasion. The festival takes places every year on the fifth day of the bright half of the Hindu month Shravan (July/August).  On the day of the festival, villagers dance to music and carry the snakes in pots on their heads in a procession to the temple. After the rituals are complete, the snakes are taken out from the pots and the temple priest sprinkles turmeric and red powder and flowers on their raised heads. The snakes are offered milk and honey, and then set free in the temple courtyard.

The surprising thing about the festival is that although the venomous fangs aren't removed from the snakes, they're known to not bite anyone. The snakes are pampered with a diet of fresh milk and rats. More snake charmers than usual are out on the streets of India during the festival.

Nag Panchami is mostly held in rural areas, particularly Baltis Shirale village in Maharastra. It is located 400 kilometers from Mumbai. The biggest collection of snakes in the world can be found there, and people from all over the world flock to worship them. Other places where Nag Panchami is celebrated include Adiesha Temple in Andhra Pradesh, Nagaraja Temple in Kerala, Nagathamman Temple in Chennai, and Hardevja Temple in Jaipur.

Hemis Festival

Hemis Festival

Hemis festival is a two day festival that commemorates the birth of Guru Padmasambhava, the founder of Tantric Buddhism in Tibet. Every year in June or July the festival is held at the 300-year-old Buddhist monastery of Hemis Jangchub Choling, near Leh. The monastery is the biggest and richest Buddhist monastery in the Ladakh region.

The highlight of the festival is the Masked Dance, performed by the lamas and it illustrates good prevailing over evil. The performers wear intricate and bizarre costumes and brightly painted masks. The masks are the most vital part of the dance and the dance movements are slow, and the expressions grotesque. The music is typically punctuated with sounds of cymbals, drums, and unwieldy trumpets. Each colorful mask illustrates a different figure in the legend that's being portrayed. The Padmasambhava dance shows the conquest of the ruta demons and includes Yama -- the God of death, and the black-hatted sorcerer, Guru Trakpo -- the vanquisher of all demons.

Flights to Leh are available from Delhi, Srinagar and Jammu. Alternatively, it is also possible to travel there by road from Manali and Srinagar. The Hemis Monastery is 45 kilometers from Leh and can be reached by road.