List of the Indian Festivals

A festival is an occasion that is traditionally held by a community to commemorate some aspect of that group's religion or customs. It is regularly marked as a local or countrywide vacation, fair, or Eid. A pageant constitutes normal cases of glocalization, in addition to the excessive subculture, low subculture interrelationship.

Aside from religion and folklore, agriculture is a key source. Because food is such a crucial resource for humans. Harvest season is associated with various events. During this time occasions such as Halloween in the northern latitudes and Easter in the southernmost, devout commemoration and thanksgiving for plenteous harvests are blended.

Patronal festivals serve a specific social purpose, such as commemorating or praising the gods, goddesses, or saints. They may offer entertainment, which became important to neighbourhood groups before the advent of industrially produced entertainment. Festivals that focus on cultural or ethnic subjects also aim to educate community members about their traditions; the participation of elders sharing their stories and experiences helps bring families together.

Festivals, such as the Saturnalia celebrated in Ancient Greece and Rome were closely tied with social structure, political processes, and faith. Strangers, such as tourists, may attend festivals in modern times if they are drawn to the more unusual or historical ones.

Etymology

The word "festival" was first used in the late fourteenth century, and it comes from Latin via Old French. A "competition dai" became a spiritual holiday, and its first recorded use as a noun was in 1589 (as "Festifall"). The feast was first used as a noun circa 1200, and its first recorded use as a verb was done into circa 1300. The word "feast" is also utilized in a commonplace mainstream speech as a synonym for any huge or precarious meal. It is most customarily refers to a non-secular festival rather than a film or art competition, in the Philippines and lots of different former Spanish colonies.

The word gala is derived from the Arabic word khila, which means honor robe. The word gala was first used to describe "festive dress", but by the 18th century, it had become synonymous with the festival.

Traditions

Most festivals have religious roots, and traditional activities combine cultural and religious importance. Harvest festivals, for example, celebrate the change of seasons. The most prominent spiritual festivals, such as Christmas, Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha, commemorate the beginning and end of the year. Others, like harvest fairs, enjoy a fantastic time as the seasons change. The Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses III instituted a celebration to commemorate his triumph over the Libyans. Royal holidays, like agricultural holidays, are about harvests, commemorate dynastic events in many countries. Festivals are frequently commemorated on an annual basis. There are many galas worldwide, and most countries celebrate significant events or customs with traditional and cultural activities. The majority of them end with consuming specially prepared food (demonstrating the link to "feasting") and bringing people together. National holidays are also heavily related to festivals.

Various kinds of Festivals

1. Religious Festivals
2. Art Festivals
3. Food and Drink festivals
4. Festivals of the season and harvest
5. Comedy Festivals
6. Beer Festivals
7. Cultural Festivals
8. Language Festivals
9. Sindhi Festivals
10. The Esala Perahera
11. Hindu Festivals

1. Religious Festivals:

A feast is a series of events held in respect of God in many religions. Historically, a feast and a festival are often used interchangeably. Many religions include annual holidays. Some are like Passover, Easter, and Eid al-Adha. These are dynamic feasts, which means that they are governed and guided by lunar or agricultural cycles or maybe the calendar in use at that moment. The Sed festival, for example, commemorated an Egyptian pharaoh's thirty-first year of rule and every three (or four on one occasion) years following that.

Most Ashanti traditional events are tied to designated locations, which are sacred and contain a variety of rich biological resources in their natural state. As a result, the annual commemoration of the festivals contributes to biodiversity conservation by ensuring the viability of the protected natural site.

Within the Christian ceremonial calendar, there are basic feasts, appropriately alluded to as the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas) and the Feast of the Resurrection (Easter), Still, minor celebrations in memory of the local patron saints are watched in practically all Christian-influenced nations. There's a marvelous extend of lesser feasts for the year commemorating saints, sacred occasions, or tenets in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican ceremonial calendars.

In the Philippines, at least one religious' holiday, whether Catholic, Islamic, or indigenous, is observed every year.

In Sri Lanka and Thailand, Buddhist religious galas such as Esala Perahera are celebrated.

Hindu festivities, such as Holi, have a long history. The Sikh community commemorates the new year and the creation of the Khalsa with the Vaisakhi festival.

2. Art Festivals:

The art festival has the most specialized types of festivals among the children of general arts, for example, science festivals, literary festivals, and music festivals, which celebrate intellectual and artistic achievements. Sub-categories include Comedy gala's, rock gala's, jazz fairs, buskers' festivals, Poetry festivals, theatre fairs, storytelling fairs, Re-enactment festivals, including Renaissance galas.

Aside from the numerous art festivals held throughout the year in the Philippines, February is regarded as national arts month, marking the culmination of all art festivals held around the archipelago.

Film festivals are usually held once a year and feature many screenings of various films. Some of the huge movie galas encompass the Berlin International Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and the Cannes Film Festival. With the increasing significance of digitalization, one of the online film festivals is the Best Istanbul Film Festival.

3. Food and Drink Festivals:

A meal competition is an event celebrating meals or drinks. It includes wine festivals in several nations. Some food galas are centred on a selected food object, including the National Peanut Festival in the United States or the Galway International Oyster Festival in Ireland. There are a few particular beverage festivals, like the well-known Oktoberfest in Germany. Every year on the third Thursday of November, the global celebration of the advent of Beaujolais nouveau involves transporting the new wine all over the world.

4. Festivals of the Season and Harvest:

The solar and lunar calendars and the seasonal cycle dictate seasonal festivals like Beltane, which have a wide range of ancient and current harvest festivities due to their impact on food availability. Ancient Egyptians relied on the Nile River's seasonal flooding, which served as irrigation and offered fertile soil for cultivation. Almabtrieb is a festival in the Alps that commemorates cattle return from alpine pastures to valley stables in the autumn. The Chinese New Year is a well-known winter holiday that begins on the second new moon following the winter solstice, as determined by the lunar calendar. From July 4 to 7, the Apatanis of lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh, celebrate the Dree Festival by praying for a bountiful crop harvest.

Midsummer, also known as St. John's Day, is a seasonal event commemorating a Christian saint's feast day and the northern hemisphere's summer solstice, which is especially significant in Sweden. Winter carnivals can also be used to commemorate snow and ice-related creative or sporting activity.

5. Comedy Festivals:

A comedy festival is a celebration of comedy that includes many events, jokes, and comedy performances (such as stand-up comics, sketch troupes, variety performers, and so on). It is held over a certain period. Typically, each festival features a wide range of humour themes and genres.

6. Beer Festivals:

A beer festival is an event where you can buy a variety of beers. There could be a theme, such as beers from a specific region, or a brewing style, such as winter ales.

7. The Kandy Esala Perahera Festivals:

The Festival of the Tooth, also known as the Kandy Esala Perahera (the Sri Dalada Perahara procession of Kandy), is a competition conducted in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in July and August. The Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha is enshrined on the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, and this historical procession is done every year to pay tribute to it. The parade is one-of-the-kind icons of Sri Lanka, and it includes traditional local dances such as fire dances and whip-dance costumes. The event concludes with the ancient Diya-keema ritual, a water-cutting ceremony done at Getambe on the Mahaweli River.

8. Language Festival:

A language festival may be a social and instructive event conducted by Esperanto and other corporations in several worldwide areas around the division. The cause of language festivals is to train and offer records about the arena's languages to humans who are curious about languages and cultures and expose the wealth and variety of languages. Language fairs also aim to demonstrate that each language at the international level is equally important and treasured. These fairs also focus on that there ought to be no "primary" and "minor" languages. The idea is broadly promoted via the Esperanto-audio system.

Thirty-two languages were exhibited during France's first Language Festival in 1995. There were already 65 languages in the 0.33, 85 in the second competition in 1996. The largest festivals have been held in China and England, with over 100 languages spoken on each occasion.

9. Sindhi celebrations:

The Sindhis, one of the earliest civilizations in human history, have a rich and distinct cultural heritage and are quite celebratory. The birthdays of Lord Jhoolelal and Cheti Chand are the most prominent festivals for Hindu Sindhis.

10. Cultural festivals:

Cultural festivals are yearly open day events held by most schools in Japan, ranging from nursery schools to universities, at which students showcase their artistic skills. People who want to enter the school or are curious about the institution may visit to observe the curriculum and ambience. Parents may also be interested in seeing what type of work their children have been accomplishing in these events. The fairs are usually open to the public, particularly at high faculties and universities.

11. Hindu Festivals:

Across the globe, Hindus rejoice in a diverse number of fairs and celebrations. The gala's normally celebrating activities from historical Indians and frequently coinciding with seasonal adjustments. These celebrations are a set of annual dates at the sun calendar or occur on a specific day of the lunisolar calendar. Many fairs might be often celebrated via specific sects or in various areas of the Indian subcontinent.

Why do we have festivals?

Festivals are a creative approach to commemorate illustrious heritage, culture, and traditions. They're designed to let us enjoy special moments and feelings in our life with the people we care about. In some manner, all festivals are cultural in some form. There are numerous types of cultural festivals, including national, religious, and seasonal celebrations. They cause us to lose sight of our cultural and religious distinctions. They bring people together for the sole goal of celebrating and being happy. Apart from that, festivals are beneficial in breaking up the monotony of existence.

Activities during the festival

The festival activities or events may be primarily spectator or participation, or a combination of both. One or more of the following sorts of events or activities can be included in a festival.

Explanation of all these activities:

1. Ceremonies:

A ceremony is a cohesive ceremonial event with a goal usually held on a particular occasion and consists of several creative components.

2. Concerts:

A concert is a public presentation of live music in front of an audience. A single performer referred to as a recital, or a musical group, such as an orchestra, choir, or band, may perform. Concerts are held in a wide range of venues, ranging from private homes and small nightclubs to dedicated concert halls, Picnic areas, and parks, as well as massive multifunctional structures like arenas and stadiums. Arena concerts and theatre concerts are terms used to describe indoor events staged in huge venues.

3. Music:

Music is the art of making work by organizing sound over time using melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. It is a cultural function of all common human communities. The pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and acoustics components of timbre and texture are included in commonplace definitions of tune (from time to time known as the "coloration" of sound). There are instrumental sections, vocal sections, and vocal and instrumental mixtures; songs played with various gadgets and vocal approaches, from making a song to rapping. The introduction of musical works (songs, melodies, symphonies, and many others), music criticism, song history research, and aesthetic appreciation of music are all sports that describe the tune as an artwork form or cultural hobby.

4. Competitions:

Competition is a rivalry in which two or more parties strive for a commonplace goal that cannot share where one's gain is the opposite's loss, for example, a zero-sum game. Competition can emerge between species, people, economic and social groups, and other entities. Any exclusive aim, such as recognition (E.g., Awards, commodities). Friends, reputation, prestige, leadership, market proportion, niche, and uncommon assets, or a location, can be the supply of rivalry.

5. Dance:

Dance is a kind of acting that consists of unplanned or well-chosen movement sequences. This movement has both aesthetic and symbolic costs. Dance can be classified and described which is based on its choreography, motion repertory, ancient time, or region of starting place.

6. Meal:

A meal is a gathering of people who eat at a specific time and consume prepared food. The names used for unique food in English range, relying on the speaker's way of life, the time of day, or the dimensions of the meal. Meals are most commonly served in homes, restaurants, and cafeterias, although they can be served anywhere. Meals are eaten regularly, usually many times a day. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and holidays are all examples of special occasions that call for special meals. A meal differs from a snack. In a meal, the food is often larger, more diverse, and more filling.

7. Eating:

Eating (also known as consuming) is ingesting food to give energy and allow a heterotrophic creature to grow. Carnivores consume other animals, herbivores consume plants, omnivores ingest a mixture of plant and animal stuff, and detritivores consume detritus. Eating is a necessary part of life for humans. Some people may cut back on their nutritional intake. It could result from a lifestyle choice, hunger or famine, a diet, or religious fasting.

8. Drinking:

Drinking culture refers to the customs and social behaviours surrounding ethanol-containing beverages as recreational drugs and social lubricants. Even though alcoholic beverages and societal attitudes regarding drinking differ worldwide. Practically every civilization has found the procedures of making beer, fermenting wine, and distilling spirits on its own.

9. Parade:

A parade is a group of people who march down a street, often dressed up and occasionally accompanied by marching bands, floats, or enormous balloons. Parades are held for a variety of reasons, but they are mostly related to a celebration. In British English, the word 'parade' is mainly reserved for military parades or other events where people march information; the word 'procession' is more commonly used for joyous celebrations. The phrase has fewer formal implications in the Canadian Forces.

10. Party:

In a party, a number of guests are invited to socializing, convert, undertaking, or as a part of a competition or other commemoration or birthday celebrations of a noteworthy event is referred to as a celebration. A normal party will include food and beverages and music, dancing, and other forms of entertainment. Teen and person parties are connected with alcoholic drinks and beer, wine, or distilled spirits in many western countries.

11. Performance:

A play, concert, or another type of entertainment is staged or presented as a performance. It can also be described as the action or process of performing or completing a task, action, or function.

12. Racing:

Racing is a recreation where athletes compete for speed towards an objective criterion, along with a clock or a detailed spot. In a race, competitors attempt to finish an activity within the least duration viable. It commonly includes travelling a sure distance. However, it may also be some other job that requires pace to reach a particular goal. Running a race constantly from start to end or in chunks called heats, tiers, or legs. Heat is regularly repeated at exceptional times over the same path. A stage is a segment of a much longer course or shorter time trial.

13. Sport:

Any competitive hobby or recreation that attempts to hold or decorate bodily capability and competencies simultaneously as offering enjoyment to contributors and, in a few situations, leisure to spectators is taken into consideration as a sport. Through casual or organized engagement in sports, one can improve physical health.

14. Singing:

Singing is the act of making musical sounds with one's voice. A singer, often known as a vocalist, is a person who sings (in jazz and popular tune). Many singers perform music with or without the accompaniment of instruments. Singing among a group of musicians, such as a choir or an instrumentalist band, is very common. Singers can perform solo or in groups ranging from a single instrument (an art song or a few jazz patterns) to a full symphony orchestra or a huge band.

Festivals are significant in our lives for the following reasons:

1. Festivals Promote Nature Harmony
2. Festivals Promote Brotherhood and Faith
3. Festivals help to accelerate economic development

Explanation:

1. Festivals Promote Nature Harmony:

Festivals are linked to the environment and culture worldwide. Religious festivals such as Navratri, Dusshera, Diwali, Holi, Lori, Pongal, Karwa Chauth, Raksha Bandhan, and Shivratri are celebrated in India. All these unique events are based on Satyug (The era of fact on Earth), Dwaparyug, Treta Yug, memories and actual incidents, Puran and Vedas, etc.

2. Festivals bring a sense of brotherhood and trust in people:

Festivals create a sense of camaraderie and faith among the people. At festivals, people are connected to God and lessons. Connection with God creates a fine mindset in their behaviour toward all human beings. Positive attitudes towards everyone, regardless of caste, religion, colour, or occupation, and a sense of respect for all promote fraternity, love, and faith in society. That's why festivals are significant occasions to commemorate. Because festivals are the lifeblood of society, fraternity and faith are inextricably linked to how much we care about one another.

3. estivals help to accelerate economic development:

People spend more money on goods and services during festivals. It is because retailers give them discounts on luxury things and offer them numerous appealing schemes for products and services. Employees in both the public and private sectors receive special bonuses, presents, and vacations to spend time with their families at the festivals. Festivals are organized by everyone and cost money. It raises the number of banking and cash transactions. More items purchased imply additional tax series for the authorities. Greater people gain money, which leads to more investment, and so on.

List of Festivals