Festivals are a time of celebration and commemoration. Every community across the world has special days that are set aside for the ritual celebration of special events; these events may be religious  in nature, or mark points in seasonal or agricultural cycles. Festivals may be local, observed only by a small group of people in a particular place, or they may be observed by a larger group of people, spread out across a country or countries.

The oldest festivals are religious in nature. Traditionally, such celebrations would include a sacred, communal meal or feast  – hence ‘feast’ is another word often used to denote ‘festival’. Most religious festivals are annual in nature, the year representing not just a period of time, but also a sacred cycle that recurs again and again for eternity. For instance, New Year festivals in many communities represent the beginning of order emerging from cyclic chaos. Festivals that commemorate the dead help maintain a continuity between the living and the dead, between the past and the present, thus ensuring the smooth passage of cyclic time. Cosmic order underlies social order, and the former is maintained by honouring the gods at festivals.

Festivals also perform a social function: they bring a group of people together, binding them in ties that transcend family, even village or town, thus engendering feelings of belonging to a larger community. Festivals also help in the preservation of traditional beliefs and customs and in their transmission from one generation to the next. This aspect is particularly important in primitive societies without written records where the ritual recital of tribal stories and the observance of tribal customs during festivals is the only way to preserve and transmit traditional lore.

Let us take a look at some of our festivals and explore the stories that lie behind them.

Christmas

Chusok

Diwali

Durga Puja

Easter

Guy Fawkes’ Day

Halloween

Holi

Mahalaya

Passover