Saurashtra · Arid Northwest
Festivals
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Navratri | Nine nights in Ashvin, September or October | Garba danced in a circle around the garbo — a perforated earthen pot with a lamp inside — in every village square and city ground for nine consecutive nights, the tempo rising through each session. The commercial sponsored garba grounds of the cities and the single-drum village circle are the same form at different scales, and Saurashtra is where the second still predominates. |
| Tarnetar Fair | Bhadarva sud 4–6, late August or September | Three days at the Trinetreshwar Mahadev temple near Thangadh. It is best known as a marriage fair among Bharwad, Rabari, Koli and Kanbi families, and the signal is the Tarnetar chhatri — an embroidered and mirrored umbrella carried by a young man looking for a match, made in his own household, so its workmanship advertises the family that would receive the bride. |
| Bhavnath Mahadev Fair | Maha vad 9–14, culminating at Mahashivratri in February or March | Five days at the Bhavnath temple in the Girnar foothills, ending with a midnight mahapuja and the ravedi — a procession of naga sadhus from the akharas that camp there for the fair. The mela is as much an assembly of ascetic orders as a public festival. |
| Girnar Lili Parikrama | Kartik sud 11–15, November | A circuit of roughly 36 km around the base of Girnar through forest that is closed to the public for the rest of the year, walked overnight and over two days by several hundred thousand people. The forest department opens the route for those days only, which is the whole reason the walk exists in this form. |
| Kartik Purnima at Shatrunjaya | November | The day the Palitana temples reopen after the four monsoon months in which the hill is closed to pilgrimage. Tens of thousands climb at once, and the six-gau pilgrimage circuit around the hill is walked on the same day. |
| Madhavpur Ghed Fair | From Ram Navami, five days, March or April | A fair at the coastal village where the marriage of Krishna and Rukmini is held to have taken place, with a procession carrying the deity to a marriage mandap on the beach. Since 2018 it has been paired with cultural delegations from the north-east, on the strength of the tradition that places Rukmini's home in what is now Arunachal Pradesh. |
| Janmashtami at Dwarka | Shravan vad 8, August or September | Midnight observance at the Dwarkadhish temple with the town full for several days, plus raas and matki-phod through the streets. Dwarka and Bet Dwarka together take the largest crowds of the Saurashtra year outside Navratri. |
| Uttarayan | 14 January | Kite flying from rooftops all day, marking the sun's northward turn. It is observed across Gujarat; in Saurashtra it also marks the point at which the winter sweets — adadiya, gundar pak, chikki — are at their peak and about to end. |
| Dussehra and Bestu Varas | October and November | Dussehra morning is eaten rather than celebrated — fafda and jalebi from before dawn, in quantities that shops plan a year for. Bestu Varas, the day after Diwali, opens the Gujarati commercial year with new account books and the first visits of the season. |
The festival calendar of Saurashtra — what is celebrated, when it falls and what happens. (9)