Dussehra, Diwali and Holi
The great Hindu festivals as the Punjab keeps them: Ravana's effigies burning at Dussehra, lamps at Diwali, colour at Holi.
At Dussehra towns across the Punjab burn giant effigies of Ravana after nights of the Ram Lila; three weeks later Diwali fills houses and temples with lamps, and in Amritsar the Durgiana Temple and the Harmandir Sahib are lit on the same night, Hindus keeping Diwali and Sikhs Bandi Chhor Divas.
Holi, the spring festival of colour, became Hola Mohalla at Anandpur, where Guru Gobind Singh turned it into a day of martial games.
More festivals and fairs
The harvest festival and the birthday of the Khalsa, when Guru Gobind Singh called for five heads in 1699.
The midwinter bonfire, for the longest night, the new bride and the newborn son, and for Dulla Bhatti.
▶ Watch
Guru Gobind Singh's festival of mock battles, horsemanship and poetry at Anandpur.
The day Guru Hargobind came home from Gwalior, freeing 52 princes, and Amritsar was lit with lamps.
The women's festival of the monsoon: swings in the trees, giddha, and daughters coming home.
The day after Lohri, when Sikhs remember the Forty Liberated at Muktsar.
The spring festival of yellow clothes and kites over Lahore.
The festival of lamps at the shrine of Shah Hussain in Lahore, once the greatest fair of the Punjab.
Three days of prayer, qawwali and free food at the shrine of Lahore's patron saint.
The ten days of mourning for Imam Hussain, with processions of taziyas and banners through the old cities of the Punjab.
The great fair in honour of Gugga Pir, lord of snakes, in a village of Ludhiana district each September.
A fair of lamps at the shrine of a Sufi pir in Jagraon, still kept by Punjabis of every faith on the Indian side.
The goddess girls make on the wall each autumn, from clay stars and a painted face, and sing to for nine nights.
The autumn day when married women fast from dawn until the moon rises, for their husbands' long lives.
Three days of mourning and remembrance at Fatehgarh Sahib for the youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh, bricked up alive at Sirhind in 1704.
The oldest festival of classical music in India, held every winter beside the Devi Talab temple in Jalandhar.
The festival of lights, processions and langar for Guru Nanak's birth, when pilgrims from India cross to Nankana Sahib.
Eid prayers at the Badshahi Mosque, sweet vermicelli, new clothes and Eidi for the children.
The day sisters tie a thread on their brothers' wrists, and brothers promise to protect them.
The night the 'Gate of Paradise' at Baba Farid's shrine is opened and pilgrims crowd through it.
Pilgrims of every faith walking with drums and banners to the shrine of Lakhdata Pir at the foot of the Suleiman hills.
In the world's museums
4 objects
To celebrate the arrival of spring during the festival of HoliWikimedia Commons ↗
Holi Scene, 1800 CE, Kangra School of Art, Indian Museum, KolkataIndian Museum, Kolkata · photo SpeakingArch (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA ↗
Krishna being dressed in women’s clothes for the spring festival Holic. 1790 · Northern India, Pahari kingdomsCleveland Museum of Art ↗
Krishna celebrates Holic. 1770 · Northern India, Pahari kingdomsCleveland Museum of Art ↗