Una quiet town in India for a few days each year becomes the center of a series of absolutely unmissable events. We find ourselves in the Indian Rajasthan region, where the historic Pushkar fair takes place, also called “Pushkar Mela.”
Every year, on the full moon days of November, thousands of people flock here to participate in this event: it is a livestock fair eagerly awaited for two reasons.
Undoubtedly for purely commercial reasons: thousands of shepherds and, more generally, owners of goats, horses, cows, and camels come to Pushkar to buy and sell and to “show off” the animals.
The second reason is that the Pushkar Fair takes place on the same days as Kartik Purnima, an important religious festival that commemorates the creation by Brahma, the Creator, of the sacred lake of Pushkar.
For this reason, this area becomes the destination of a great pilgrimage that culminates, on the day of the full moon, with the custom of bathing in the waters of the lake itself. Thus, sales, barters, commercial exchanges alternate with religious rites and prayers.
Thus, through the streets of Pushkar, on these particular days, street artists, musicians, and street vendors also arrive: a true village festival where you can have fun and buy Indian handicrafts.
The local population takes the opportunity to “sanctify the celebration” worthily, dressing in the finest traditional clothes they own: careful makeup; women’s clothing rich in wonderful and precious details, with sparkling little mirrors; intricate and very colorful men’s turbans.
A unique opportunity—especially for Western travelers—to immerse oneself in the most heartfelt, ancient, and traditional of Indian fairs and festivals.
