The 10 Major Monsoon Festivals in India

India is known as land of festivals, Every next day there is a festival celebrated somewhere around the country. As the monsoon arrives in India, it’s a best month to enjoy the wet weather and monsoon festival. Generally the monsoon festival falls during the holy month of Shravan, during this period there are plenty of fairs and festivals that celebrated with dancing, singing and feasting welcome the rains. India’s festivals celebrate not only gods and goddesses but also wind, rain, fire, trees and animals known as holy animals. There are numerous traditional fast and festivals celebrated during the wet season, some of them are Ganga Dussehra, Rath Yatras, Kanwarias, Janmashtami, Barsha Mongol Ramadan and Splash fairs are one of the most important part of all monsoon festivals.

1. Teej

The Haritalika Teej is a fasting festival for Hindu married women, celebrated during the monsoon. This festival is dedicated to the Goddess Parvati, commemorating her reunion with Lord Shiva. The most important festival of monsoon is most widely celebrated across various parts of India, traditional songs and dancing are the unique features of Teej celebrations. Teej is a very popular festival of India and all women in India celebrate this festival with great enthusiasm and joy.

2. Nag Panchami

The festival of snakes, celebrated on the fifth day of the moonlit-fortnight in the month of Shravan. It very important Hindu festival, people worship the snake and offer milk to honor the snakes ” The Indian Cobra“. The sacred Hindu festival dedicated to snake god to protect them from all evils. People worship the snake idols and in some extreme form of worship people feed milk to live cobras as well.

3. Onam

Onam is the largest festival in the “God’s Own Country” of Kerala, celebrated with fun and fervor by Malayalees across India. The harvest festival of Onam is celebrated with ten days of feasting, snake boat races, song, dance and merriment. The 10 days are part of the traditional Onam celebrations and each day has its own importance in various rituals and traditions. During the foremost cultural festival of the Kerala, flower arrangement and amazing designs are one of the major attractions.

4. Raksha Bandhan

The most famous Indian festival, Raksha Bandhan is celebrated in the month of Sravan. The day symbolizes love, affection and a feeling of brothers and sisters, The significance of Rakhi is the bond of protection or promise of protection. Sisters apply tilak to the forehead of their brothers, tie the Rakhi to the wrist and do arati and pray for their good health & long life.

5. Nariyal Purnima

The Coconut Day festival or Narali Purnima is celebrated mostly by the fishing community in Maharashtra and other coastal areas. The festivals shows the true culture and traditions of Maharashtra and fishermen called as Koli. It is celebrated on the same day of Raksha Bandhan festival in western state at the end of monsoon season.

6. Adiperukku

The great and unique festival of Tamil which is known as Adi Perukku celebrated during mid july-August by women. The festival pays tribute to water’s life-sustaining properties, celebrated near river basins, water tanks, lakes and wells. The monsoon festival of south India falls on the 18th day of tamil month of Aadi and celebrated in a grand manner.

7. Hemis Festival

The hemis festival is celebrated in the famous monastery of ladakh in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The five day Hemis Festival is held every year in the Hemis Monastery, the biggest Buddhist monastery of Ladakh. The festival and fair offers a colorful and wide variety of exquisite works of art, culture and a spectacular view of snow-clad Himalayan beauty.

8. Minjar

The Minjar Festival of Himachal Pradesh celebrated during the july-August at Chamba. Minjar festival is a kind of a thanksgiving ceremony to the god of rain and a prayer for good harvest. The seven-day long harvest festival is one of the major monsoon festival in Himachal Pradesh, along with Minjar Mela.

9. Hareli

The tribal states of India, Chhattisgarh celebrate Hareli festival to pray for a good harvest. This is an important harvest festival celebrated in Chhattisgarh and some part of Madhya Pradesh during the holy month of sawan. In this festival farmers worship cow, bullocks and farm equipments, bull race at some part attracts a major crowd. Raja Parva is also a monsoon festival celebrated by women in the state of Orissa.

10. Behdienkhlam

The annual Behdienkhlam is one of the prime festival of Meghalaya, celebrated during the monsoon season in the month of July at Jaintia Hills. This is the festival of tribal Pnar people, Young men make a symbolic gesture of driving away of the evil spirit and dancing in the muddy pool of water is main attraction. There are other monsoon festivals also celebrated at north east India such as Nongkrem Dance, Reh Festival, Cheiraoba festival, Moatsu and Ambubasi Mela.

Most Famous Monsoon Festivals of Incredible India also includes

• Rath Yatra
• Shravani Mela
• Krishna Janmashtami
• Ganesh Chaturthi
• Ganga Dussehra
• Avani Avittam

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