Information on Fairs and Festivals Jaisalmer Rajasthan
Festivals are celebrated all over the Thar with great exuberance, providing the people an opportunity to forget their daily struggle for survival. The more important festivals are also an occasion to hold fairs and therefore it is difficult to delink the two. Religion, season, trade and tradition all bring specific festivals.
Boundless energy seems to flow during festival time. The colour, noise and crowds excite and bewitch. Entire families and sometimes entire villages travel great distances to attend these joyous fairs. They come on foot, carts, camels, horses and even on buses and tractors resplendent in their colourful clothes and traditional jewellery.
Fairs are grand occasions to dress up, sing, dance, eat and enjoy; buying trinkets for loved ones, to take the children out. Musicians, bards and puppeteers or putliwallahs frequent fairs and festivals to perform and entertain, shops are set up and dancers dance through the day.
Fairs are also occasions when traditions are reinforced through folklore, folk music, dance and cuisine. These moments of celebration present some of the finer aspects of desert culture, revealing how deep-rooted is the cultural tradition of the people of the Thar. Festivals like Holi, Diwali, Id, Dussehra and Mahavir Jayanti are celebrated here as in other parts of India, but with a peculiar local flavour.
Most important seasonal festivals are celebrated in spring before the onset of summer, probably because the harsh summer months do not allow any celebration. Sheetla Ashtmi, Chaitra Ashtmi. Teej and Gangaur are the important seasonal festivals, especially for women. Also Visit – Jaisalmer tour packages
Sheetla Ashtmi
Sheetla Ashtmi is celebrated in honor of the Sheetla Mata, the goddess who protects children against smallpox. Celebrated in March, a week after holi, the spring festival of colours, it also heralds summer. No food is kept overnight after this festival. Sheetla Ashtmi fairs take place throughout the desert. Sweetened rice, rabadi, which is a mixture of butter and millet and bajre ki roti or baked millet are the traditional fare on Sheetla Ashtmi. Food is traditionally offered to the goddess by potters.
Gangaur
Gangaur is dedicated to the goddess Parvati, known also as Gauri, consort of Lord Shiva. This is a festival for women with its roots in the pre-Aryan fertility cult of the Mother Goddess. Gauri is worshipped near a water source with sprouts in hand and a new pot full of water. Girls worship a clay or wooden image of Gauri from their seventh year onwards in preparation for their roles as ideal wives and mothers. Millet and maize seeds are buried in the ashes of fires lit during Holi and watered till they germinate. Unmarried girls pray for good husbands and ‘akhand suhag’. Girls are gifted ornaments and cooling henna is applied on their hands. The women pray for rain, good for-tune, grain and wealth. Songs related to the celebration of Gangaur are often in the form of a dialogue between girls and the goddess Gauri.
In Jaisalmer Gangaur is a major festival. A large procession starts from the Mandir Palace, through the town all the way to Gadisar where the Gangaur mata is worshipped and then brought back to the fort. An interesting legend is attached to the celebration of this festival. It is said that originally the procession was led by Lord Shiva’s icon, which was plundered and carried away by the people of Bikaner. Since that day the procession is led by the Maharawal of Jaisalmer as Gangaur mata’s protector. In retaliation the people of Jaisalmer went and looted the gates of Bikaner fort. Thegates were installed in Jaisalmer fort as a symbol of victory where they stand till today.
Teej
Teej heralds the onset of the truant monsoon. Swings are put up under trees and girls are gifted new clothes and homesick young bride visits their parents. Romance is in the air and songs are sung. there is a wealth of paintings depicting scenes of Teej being celebrated.
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS:
Ramdeora Festival
The Ramdeora festival is celebrated in August-September for ten days. Pilgrims come to Ranideora from far and near to attend the fair held in honour of Ramdeora. Legend goes that Lord Krishna was born as a son named Ramdeo to his childless devotee Ajmal ‘roman He devoted his life to the downtrodden and is thus venerated both by the Hindus and the Muslims, as Ramshah Pir. Maharaja Ganga Singh built a beautiful temple in his honour in 1931. Also Visit – Jodhpur Udaipur Tour Package
Dussehra
The ten-day festival of Dussehra signifies the epic victory of good over evil. In Jaisalmer, the Rajputs are worshippers of Shakti and not so long ago animal sacrifices of goats and bulls were performed, although this has now been banned by the government. Darikhana or audience for the people takes place at the Royal Palace. A royal procession is taken through the town, with the Maharawal on a horse with men of his court walking ahead accompanied by dancers and musicians.
Other important local fairs and festivals include the celebration to mark the birth of Lord Mahavir, the founder of Jainism, the Kesariya Kund ka Mela at Gadisar Lake and Ganeshji ka Mela at Ganga Sagar Lake.
Cattle Fairs
Cattle fairs are colourful rural trade fairs, which are attended by peasants from all over Rajasthan. They buy and sell cattle, camels, sheep, goats and horses. The three most important cattle fairs are held at Tilwarra, Nagaur and Pushkar.
The Tilwarra fair takes place near Barmen It is held in March-April after Holi for fifteen days. Trading of camels begins almost ten days before the fair and the peasants camp on the dunes with their animals. The Tilwarra fair has a religious significance as well. It is held in honour of Baba Malinathji who is revered as the protector of animals where people also pray for a good rain. The Tilwarra fair is now very much on the tourist map of India and thousands of tourists from all over the world visit it every year. It is a perfect instance of a pilgrimage that has acquired immense commercial significance.
Desert Festival
The Jaisalmer Desert festival is usually held in February and attracts almost 25,000 tourists from home and abroad. Folk-singers and performers from all over Rajasthan gather in Jaisalmer and the Desert City becomes vibrant with colour, music and dance.
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