Baisakhi (Vaisakhi) Festival, Punjab
Baisakhi, also called Vaisakhi, is a harvest festival which is celebrated on the thirteenth of April according to the solar calendar. It is celebrated in North India, particularly in Punjab, when the crop is ready for harvesting. This tough agricultural operation is rendered into a lighter occupation by merry community festivities such as the Bhangra dance by men, who pound the ground with vigorous steps accompanied with singing.
Women too, break into a revelry of dances principally the Gidda dance, executed with fervour and rhythmic exactitude. On these occasions, men and women adorn themselves with gay coloured clothes and traditional jewellery. Generally, the sites of these festivities are on the banks of the rivers and in local places of worship or halls.
Baisakhi has a special meaning for the Sikhs. On this day in 1699, their tenth Guru Gobind Singh organized the order of the Khalsa. On this day also, Guru Arjan Das was martyred by the Muslim rulers who, threw him alive into a cauldron of boiling oil.
Again, on this day in 1875, Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj—a reformed sect of Hindus who are devoted to the Vedas for spiritual guidance and have discarded idol worship. This day is once again of immense religious import to the Buddhists because Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment and Nirvana on this auspicious day.
Baisakhi day is observed as the Naba Barsha (New Year) in Bengal. On 14th April, the people take a ritual bath in the River Ganga or any other river or a nearby tank and bedeck their houses with rangoli (floral patterns) drawn on the entrance floor of their homes with a paste made of rice powder.
Baishakhi festival is celebrated twice a year in Himachal Pradesh in honour of Goddess Jwalamukhi. This happens in the months of Vaishakha (April-May) and Kartika (November). A temple near the hot springs is dedicated to the Goddess. Her image is so fabricated that a jet of flames issues forth from the mouth of the deity. This flame is held sacred and is worshipped. The neighbouring hot springs are a popular place for a holy dip by thousands of pilgrims on the days when the fairs are held.
In the South, Baisakhi is celebrated to mark the Tamil and Telugu New Year. In a ceremonial march, people take out wooden chariots in a procession. The temples in Kerala celebrate Pooram festivals usually in honour of Vishnu. Among them, the Pooram observed in the Vadakkunathan Swamy (Shiva) temple of Trichur is famous. The temple stands in the heart of the town in the Tekkin Kadu Maidan, once a forest of rosewood trees. Many smaller Poorams calld Cheru Poorams also take place. Caparisoned elephants with gold-plated ornamental coverings embellished with garlands and coloured umbrellas, mohair whisks, round, coloured hand fans, along with panchavadyam (a combination of five traditional musical instruments of Kerala), emerge from the surrounding temples. The elephants coverage on the main temple after circumambulation and prayers and thereafter disperse. In the afternoon, the primary Pooram commences with the two parties called Thiruvambadi and Paramekkavu, each along with its fifteen fully caparisoned elephants, accompanied by the traditional musicians of Kerala. After the procession has gone round the temple, it arrives on the vast maidan by evening. The elephants of various parties line up opposite each other and exchange their brightly-coloured umbrellas to perform the Kudamattam ceremony. This is a most impressive and spectacular sight.
The entire atmosphere resounds with the high notes of music and by 9 pm the first Pooram comes to an end.
The second Pooram commences at midnight with a peculiar musical tone called the Elangithara Melan played under a tree called the elangi. Then starts a procession headed by fire torches and followed by the elephants which make for a thrilling scene, surpassing the beauty and grandeur of the earlier Pooram. The tempo of the Pooram comes to an end by early morning with a competitive display of fireworks among the two parties. The celebrations attract not only the people of Kerala but others from far and wide.
Another festival of note on this day in South India takes place in honour of the Goddess Kamarchi Amman whose temple is located in Pondichery. The goddess is worshipped three times a day when the idol, duly decorated with jewelry and flowers, is taken out in daily processions on different mounts consisting of a horse, a lion, a swing or a chariot. Musicians accompany the procession. On the ninth day of the festival, between 10 am and 5 pm, the image is placed in a wooden chariot and taken out in a grand procession through Pondichery city.
To return to north India again, Bihar state celebrates a festival in Vaishakha (April) and Kartika (November) in honour of the Sun God, Surya, at a place called Surajpur-Baragaon. This is essentially a village where, according to an ancient practice, people bathe in the temple tank and pay obeisance to the Sun God while offering flowers and water from the sacred river Ganga. It may be mentioned here that the Sun God holds a special place in the hearts of the people of Bihar and Orissa—particularly the latter where the temple at Konark manifests this deep veneration.
Source: WIKIPEDIA