Brahma Temple, Pushkar – Festivals

Brahma Temple, Pushkar – Festivals

The Pushkar Fair, also called the Pushkar Camel Fair or locally as Kartik Mela or Pushkar ka Mela is an annual multi-day livestock fair and cultural festival held in the town of Pushkar (Rajasthan, India). The fair starts with the Hindu calendar month of Kartik and ends on the Kartik Purnima, which typically overlaps with late October and early November in the Gregorian calendar. The Pushkar fair alone attracts over 200,000 visitors. The Pushkar fair is one of India's largest camel, horse and cattle fairs. Apart from the trading of livestock, it is an important pilgrimage season for Hindus to the Pushkar lake.

 Pushkar fair has also become a significant tourist attraction for domestic and international travelers, given the cooler season, the abundance of colorful cultural themes. Cultural events and competitions include dances, tug of war between women teams as well as men teams, the matka phod, longest moustache competition, bridal competition, camel races and others. Thousands of people go to the banks of the Pushkar Lake where the fair takes place. Men trade their livestock, which includes camels, horses, cows, sheep and goats. Rural families shop at the handicraft stalls full of bracelets, clothes, textiles and fabrics.

A camel race starts off the festival, with music, songs and exhibitions to follow. Between these events, the most waited for is the test of how the camel is able to bring the items. In order to demonstrate, the men go up on the group of camels one after another. The peak celebrations occur over the last five days from the Kartik Ekadashi to Kartik Poornima, the full moon day of Kartik (October–November) in Hindu calendar. This period sees an influx of Hindu pilgrims who attend the fairs, visit the temples and take a dip in the Pushkar lake. Special rites are performed on all poornimas (full moon days) and Amavasyas (new moon days).