Whatever may be the occasion, fairs and festival in Garwhal are celebrated in spontaneous continuity and with great enthusiasm. Quite often the men and women folks dance and sing out the lores and legends of the deities. Huge crows turn out at these festivals.

The carnivals of Garwhal can be classified into three namely Thematic celebrations i.e. religious, seasonal, sportive, agricultural and government sponsored. Next are Religious celebrations associated with Saivism, Vaishnavis, and local Shamanism. Lastly local celebrations from valley to valley.

 Jhora Dance

The chapter is titled Fairs and Festivals, Places Occasion and Events. It has different parts.

Motives consists of Sacred Geography, Fascination of Music, Colour and Crowds, Drive for Togetherness, Religious Urge.

Seasonal Rhythms consists of Calendaric Happenings, Thauls and Asars, Angling the Fish and Hitting the Ball, Modern and Agricultural Festivals.

Cosmic Rhythms consists of Processional Performances, Other Processional Performances, Fairs at Stations and Altars.  

Chakrvyavyooh 

To read Festivals of Garwhal in PDF

The next PDF gives the District wise List of Fairs and Festivals of Garwhal. It gives the name of fair/festival, place of occurrence, Deity/motive/context and Month. 

To read List of Fairs and Festivals in Garwhal in PDF 

Author recently retired from Srinagar University Garwhal. He did M.Phil and D.Phil, took part in theatre and music productions, written scripts, directed plays and published books etc. To read his very impressive profile

The above was first published in the book Garwhal: Nature, Culture and Society by O P Kandari and O P Gusain and published by Transmedia, Srinagar Garwhal, Uttarakhand. eSamskriti has obtained permission from the author to republish his work.