FESTIVALS
India, being a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and
multi-religious society, celebrates holidays and festivals of various
religions. The three national holidays in India, the Independence Day, the
Republic Day and the Gandhi Jayanti, are celebrated with zeal and enthusiasm
across India. In addition, many Indian states and regions have local festivals
depending on prevalent religious and linguistic demographics. Popular religious
festivals include the Hindu festivals of Navratri, Janmashtami, Diwali, Maha
Shivratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja, Holi, Rath Yatra, Ugadi, Onam, Vasant
Panchami, Rakshabandhan, and Dussehra. Several harvest festivals such as Makar
Sankranti, Pongal and Raja sankaranti swinging festival are also fairly
popular.Indian New year festival are celebrated in
different part of India with unique style in different times. Ugadi, Bihu,
Gudhi Padwa, Puthandu, Pohela Boishakh, Vishu and Vishuva Sankranti are the New
years festival of different part of India.
Certain festivals in India are celebrated by
multiple religions. Notable examples include Diwali, which is celebrated by
Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the country and Buddha Purnima, Ambedkar Jayanti
celebrated by Buddhists. Sikh festivals, such as Guru Nanak Jayanti, Baisakhi
are celebrated with full fanfare by Sikhs and Hindus of Punjab and Delhi where
the two communities together form an overwhelming majority of the population.
Adding colours to the culture of India, the Dree Festival is one of the tribal
festivals of India celebrated by the Apatanis of the Ziro valley of Arunachal
Pradesh, which is the easternmost state of India. Nowruz is the most important
festival among the Parsi community of India.
Islam in India is the second largest religion
with over 172 million Muslims, according to India's 2011 census.[16] The Islamic
festivals which are observed and are declared public holiday in India are; Eid
ul Fitr, Eid ul Adha-(Bakri Eid), Milad un Nabi, Muharram and Shab-e-Barat.[63]
Some of the Indian states have declared regional holiday's for the particular
regional popular festivals; such as Arba'een, Jumu'ah-tul-Wida and
Shab-e-Qadar.
Christianity is India's third largest religion.
With over 23 million Christians, of which 17 million are Roman Catholics, India
is home to many Christian festivals. The country celebrates Christmas and Good
Friday as public holidays.
Regional and community fairs are also common
festival in India. For example, Pushkar fair of Rajasthan is one of the world's
largest markets of cattle and livestock.
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