Jammu Duggar · Western Himalaya & Trans-Himalaya
Festivals
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Lohri | 13 January | The region's largest household festival, marking the end of the coldest fortnight. Bonfires are fed with sesame, jaggery and popped rice; boys carry the decorated chhajja from door to door for the days before; and households with a birth or a wedding in the year are expected to give the most. |
| Baisakhi | 13 or 14 April | The harvest festival and the start of the agricultural year, marked with fairs at Nagbani, Uttar Behni and dozens of village shrines, and with bathing in the Tawi, Devika and Chenab. |
| Navratri at Vaishno Devi | Chaitra (March–April) and Ashwin (September–October) | The two nine-night cycles that bring the heaviest pilgrimage traffic of the year to Katra, with the shrine open through the night and the town running at several times its normal population. |
| Bahu Mela | Twice yearly, in Chaitra and Ashwin Navratri | The fair at Bawe Wali Mata inside Bahu Fort — a city festival as much as a religious one, with the whole of Jammu walking up the hill over a fortnight. |
| Jhiri Mela | Kartik Purnima (October–November) | A three-day agricultural fair at Jhiri in memory of Baba Jitto, drawing farmers from across the Jammu plain and the kandi with their cattle. The Karak ballad is performed through the nights. |
| Purmandal Shivratri | Phalgun (February–March) | A five-day fair on the dry bed of the Devika, when the whole Samba and Jammu belt comes to the temple cluster at Purmandal and to Uttar Behni nearby. |
| Mansar Food and Craft Mela | Usually around Baisakhi | A lakeside fair at Mansar with Dogra food stalls, craft displays and boat racing, run as a tourism event on the frame of the older shrine fair. |
| Kud and kul-devta nights | After the harvest, on dates set by each household | Not a calendar festival at all — a village or family decides to hold one when it has something to thank the lineage deity for, and the dance runs from dusk to dawn with anyone free to join. |
The festival calendar of Jammu Duggar — what is celebrated, when it falls and what happens. (8)