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India celebrates… all the year round,
in a joyous and colorful calendar of festivals and fairs. Sacred, secular or seasonal,
each of these occasions has a special spirit and vigor. These celebrations of
fairs and festivals form a wondrous and joyful series of events, marking the rites
of passage between birth, death and renewal. These moments are determined not
by the pre-set dates of the linear calendar but by the changing luminosity of
the sun as it enters the new seasons, and in the cycles spun out by the waxing
and waning of the moon.
The ancient tradition of festivals goes back as long as the Vedic times and to
the Aryans. The festivals where celebrated then in honor of gods, rivers, trees,
mountains, the coming of monsoon, the end of winter or the first flush of spring.
The celebrations not only included prayers offerings but also events of social
and cultural significance.
In a land of vast geographical distances and a variety of languages and customs,
the spirit and color of the religious, seasonal or secular festivals underline
the rich legacy of traditions that has been handed over from ages |
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