INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

mented since it violates both the original Vikrami dates of the births and deaths of the
Sikh Gurus and the lunar calendar which the Gurus observed and used. In public
discourses, opponents of a fixed almanac have put forward similar arguments and
expressed fear that the new solar system will entail a Westernization of ancient Indian
conceptions and divisions of time. Maintaining the lunar Vikrami calendar or
introducing the new solar Nanakshahi calendar has thus become a matter of preserving
traditions or modernizing the community to a global world. It only remains to see
how local Sikh congregations outside the Punjab will handle this issue in the future.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF FESTIVALS
Any study of festivals in the Indian culture will have to struggle with the problem of
magnitude. The popular saying in Varanasi “There are seven days and nine festivals
in Kashi” may appear as a grave exaggeration, but there seems to be a variety of local,
regional or national religious or cultural festivals occuring every week of the year.
Anthropologists studying the various Hindu traditions and localities have over the
years produced various classification schemes of indigenous festivals. While some
have merely organized a large proportion of festivals into smaller units, others have
systematically presented seasonal and commemorative events to demonstrate underlying
theories about emanation of supernatural power or paid attention to the relationship
between festivals and social power structures in the society studied. 650
In a study on festivals in the Punjab, Walia (2002) observes that it is almost impossible
to determine the exact number of celebrations, considering that no less than
7000 fairs and festivals were observed in pre-partition times and more than 2000 fairs
are celebrated in the present Punjab, mostly in rural areas. 651 Notwithstanding the
hardship to document all Punjabi festivals, Walia classifies the fairs of Punjab into six
main types: seasonal fairs (like Vaisakhi, Basant); fairs which are based on mythical
legends; fairs held in honour of saints; fairs to honour historical events; fairs related
to festivals (such as Divali and Dassehra); and sports fairs. 652 Furthermore, Walia subdivided
these different events into local, regional and national fairs and festivals.
Whereas local fairs are celebrations of local folklore, pirs, heroes and variations of
regional or national legends by villagers or smaller groups of people, regional fairs
are usually supported by authorities and are publicly shared by a larger segment of
the Punjabi population. National fairs are holidays that are officially recognized as
all-Indian events, such as Divali, Holi and Vaisakhi. Some festivals in this category (like
Ramnaumi and Id) are celebrated by a single religious community, but will still attract
people from other religions. 653
650
For an overview of different classifications and related theories, see Freed & Freed 1998: 31 ‒
34.
651
Walia 2002: 12. A local Punjabi calender (jantri) with dates and the horoscope for the year
2005 mentioned 201 festivals and fairs to be observed during the year.
652
Walia 2002: 14.
653
Walia 2002: 41 ff.
396
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008