India is a melting pot of incredible and diverse cultures whose celebrations manifest in some of the most beautiful yet unusual ways. Here’s The Sherp’s pick of the oddest events that take place in nooks and corners of the country, through the year.
1. Thaipusam Festival
Where: Palani, Tamil Nadu
When: January to February
The Thaipusam Festival is a particularly gory South Indian festival that involves all forms of piercings and bodily torture. The festival is quite similar to the Vegetarian Festival of Phuket in Thailand where people parade around with random skewers, hooks, pins and other scary objects pierced through their bodies. The festival is celebrated to commemorate a significant part of Hindu mythlogy – when Goddess Parvati gifted Lord Murugan a vel or spear to fight a demon or anΒ Asura. The act of piercing oneself during this festival is an act of hardcore devotion which Goddess Parvati is supposed to be impressed by. What makes it more difficult to endure? All the devotees who practice this custom abstain from food and water for a few days before piercing themselves.
2.Β Vautha MelaΒ
Where: Vautha, Gujarat
When:Β October/November
Vautha Mela is a bit dorky if not funny. The festival, that takes place in Gujarat is essentially a massive mela where the trading of donkeys is its most significant feature. The gypsy traders who sell and buy donkeys decorate their animals in gaudy and bright colours, making them the highlight of the country fair. This trading mela attracts over 50,000 people and includes the exchaging of around 4000 donkeys.
3. Kila Raipur Rural Olympics
Where: Raipur, India
When: February
An unassuming festival that attracts thousands and thousands of tourists every year, the Kila Raipur Sports Festival is a rural event depicting salt-of-the-earth sport and games from Punjab. If you do manage to make it to this 3 day event, do not miss out on the bullock cart races, camel races, the tractor races, the horse dance(?!) and last but not least the legendary tug-of-war. This competition (which demonstrative of some serious skill) is important entertainment for the locals, and is taken quite seriously. If youβre into adventure sports and are backpacking across northern India, this would be an apt pit-stop for you.
4. Aadi Festival
Where:Β Tamil Nadu
When:Β July – August
Aadi Festival of Tamil Nadu centres around the aspect of smashing coconuts on peoples head. The ritual is a common practice of devotees of the Mahalaxmi Temple in the Karur district of Tamil Nadu.
How did people start wacking each other with coconuts you ask? Blame it on the British Raj. Back in those days the locals and the British colonialists indulged in an unusual bet, where the locals would have to break stones on their heads to avoid the construction of a railway track across a temple. The villagers took on the challenge willingly and won it, thus keeping their temple safe. The festival has been celebrated ever since.
4.Β Made Made Snana
Where: Karnataka
When: Not specified
This festival has garnered a lot of negative attention as it’s basis stems from the rigid Hindu Caste system. At the Kukke Subramania Temple in Karnataka, people from lower castes roll over the leftover food of Brahmins on banana leaves. This nauseating and insensitive ritual is supposed to help people get rid of ailments and such.
5.Β Puli kali
Where: Kerela
When: During Onam every September
Puli Kali is a festival of Β folk dance and music, during Kerela’s biggest harvest festival – Onam and takes place in Thrissur. During this ceremony performers paint themselves to look like tigers and enact roles of the animal to the beats played in the background. The Maharaja of Cochin pioneered this practice to celebrate Kerela’s wild and celebrated macho spirit. It is the most fascinating and striking feature of the Onam festival and is often considered a festival itself.
6.Β Nag Panchami
Where: Through out India
When: All through the year
Nag Panchami has to be India’s weirdest addition to global culture. The most hardcore and craziest celebrations of this festival take place in Baltis Village of Maharashtra where snakes are actually worshipped by people. So much so that, they bring them to temples to offer them milk and fat rats. After this bizarre ritual the snakes are let go into the wild. Another dangerous aspect about Nag Panchami is that none of the snakes worshipped are supposed to have their fangs or venom removed.
7. Agni Kheli
Where: Mangalore
When:Β April
The term Agni Kheli quite literally translates to playing with fire and that is exactly what this celebration is about. Every April, hundreds of men in nothing but loin cloths take on the challenge to throw fireballs at each other, walk on fire and perform the most dangerous feats. Usually, these men are divided into two teams where one team throws Β balls of fire and the other team is supposed to catch them. If a player catches fire, he is given a mystical and special ‘holy water’ called Kumkumarchane to satiate him. One thing is for sure, Agni Kheli is truly a spectacle to watch.
8. Lath-mar Holi
Where:Β Mathura
When:Β March – April
This is a festival takes takes place in the anticipation of holi, only in Mathura. A legend has it that Lord Krishna was once chased out of Barsana by women with sticks because of his consistent teasing and playfulness. To reenact this story, men from the neighbouring village come to Barsana only to be chased out by women with lathis or wooden sticks.
9. Raja Parba
Where: Orissa
When: June
Here is a festival celebrated in Orissa that likens the fertility of harvest to that of a woman, thus celebrating a girlβs onset of womanhood i.e. menstruation.Β Raja Parba is essentially a festival of harvest held during four days in June, that inaugurates and welcomes a nourishing harvest through the year in Orissa. The biological symbolism of this event comes from the the moistening of the sun dried soil with the first showers of the monsoon in June, thus making the it ready for productivity. The premise of the festival, is like how women menstruating is a sign of fertility, Mother Earth also menstruates for these three to four days, and thusΒ all agricultural work will be suspended. Now even though this may be a celebration, during the three days of Raja Parba ,women must adhere toΒ traditional customs observed during menstruation. As per orthodox Hindu traditions, women must suspend all house work and not touch anyone else, which indicates the supposed βimpurityβ of the female body .This acts as aΒ paradoxicalΒ factor of a festival that supposedly βcelebratesβ women. Rituals like rising before dawn, covering their bodies in tumeric paste and taking a βpurifactoryβ bath in a river or tank are common practices as well.
