Indian Festivals Essay

A festival is an occasion of enjoyment and celebration. Indian festivals are known to attract the world due to their harmony, variety, colour and excitement. Thus we can divide the festivals into three categories—national or political, religious and seasonal. These are the festivals which punctuate the seasons of the year. National festivals like Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti and others are celebrated with great patriotic fervour. Now-a-days they have been declared National Holidays. Religious festivals and ceremonies are as varied as the people, their customs beliefs and faith. In Northern India, Dussehra is observed as Vijaya Dashmi celebrating victory of good over evil, of Rama over Ravana. In Bengal, the occasion is celebrated as Durga Puja. This festival is celebrated with gaiety and lasts for five days. Diwali is the most prominent of the Hindu festivals. The Hindus celebrate this day to commemorate the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after winning the decisive war against the evil forces of Ravana. The Muslim celebrates Id-UI-Fitra. It is celebrated to mark the end of Ramzan. It was during the month of Ramzan that Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Mohammed. Christmas is the greatest festival of the Christians. The festival marks birthday of Jesus Christ the founder of Christianity on 25th December. India is the only country where these festivals are celebrated with great devotion to the Almighty and seasonal variations. The main objectives of festivals are to bring people from different walks of life to welcome each section of society with open arms and to forget the narrow differences between one another.