Rajasthan, the largest state of India, has a lot to offer visitors and never fails to lure them. Envelop with immense pleasure, the fairs and festivals of the state are marked with sensational dance and music entertainment and various fascinating competitions.
Festivals and fairs are the admirable and basic symbols of people’s life in Rajasthan. There are many festivals that show the strength and tradition of this state. Elephant festival of Jaipur is the most famous of all and attracts huge crowd every year.
As the camel is the most discernible sign of Rajasthan and Bikaner celebrates the “Ship of the Desert” festival. Elephant is also a symbol of Rajputana royalty in Rajasthan and Jaipur celebrates “The Elephant Festival”. During the Rajputana period elephants are always present in pious occurrence, marriage functions, parade and battle of Indians.
Jaipur is the capital city of Rajasthan; celebrate Elephant Festival every year. This glorious festival celebrated in the month of March, on the full moon day of Phalgun Purnima. In 2017 this day- long grand festival is going to be celebrated on 13/03/2017 at its official venue, Rambagh Polo Ground, Jaipur. It is one of the most famous festivals celebrated in Rajasthan.
Organized by Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation this festival this festival attracts scores of tourists. Tourists from several parts of the globe come to Jaipur to participate in the Festival and see a breathtaking parade of elephants.
Elephants have always been well liked and admired for their huge size, extensive power, brain and brilliance. Elephant is also consider very promising and is worshipped for his spiritual significance and the presence of Hindu God Ganesha an Elephant-headed God.
The caretakers prepare their Elephants for the festival. After giving a refreshing bath they star decorate their elephants. These elephants are lovingly painted and lavishly decorated with sequined silk parasol, flowers, glittering gold jewelry and ornaments. The Mahouts or caretakers paints their trunks, ears, foreheads, and feet in gorgeous way and also adorn them from tusk to tail. The female elephants wear anklets, which make a lovely sound when the animal moves. The seat on the Mahouts sit is called howdah placed on the back of the elephant. The howdah is very comfortable as it contains cushions also well decorated. All this decoration is a part of a competition; at the end of the day most beautifully decorated elephant is awarded.
The colorful parade of elephants steals the heart of visitors who come here from several parts of the globe. Elephant parades are one of the major draws of this event. Beautiful and well decorated elephants heighten the charm of this soul stimulating parade. The Beauty Peagent of female elephants draws huge crowd. The other animals like camel and horse are also decorated and presented in the parade.
The other highlight of the festival is the game of polo. Dressed in saffron and red turbans the players sit on the elephants, and try to score goals with long sticks and a plastic football. Some other interesting events associated with the festival are amazing dance and music performances and several interesting competitions such as turban-tying competition, fireworks and elephant dance and race. The lively dances and instruments, such as Sindhi Sarangi have the aroma of Rajasthan’s rippling sands. The most amazing competition of the festival is the tug-of-war which held between an elephant and 19 men and women.
Last but not the least this festival is lined with food stalls offering mouth-watering cuisine of Rajasthan such as jalebi, ghevar, raabdi, dal bati choorma and refreshing drink lassi. The festival ends with the colours of holi. Peoples play holi with gulaal they sprinkle gulaal over each other.
So come and enjoy this auspicious festival & also explore Rajasthan Tourism destinations during the trip.
Read more about Rajasthan Tourism:
http://ercotravels.com/blog/an-exotic-aroma-of-rajasthani-food-at-chokhi-dhani
http://ercotravels.com/blog/treat-yourself-in-the-summer-festival-of-mount-abu
