Punjabi festivals are various festive celebrations observed by the Punjabis, originating in the Punjab region. The Punjabis are religiously a diverse and that affects the festivals they observe. According to a 2007 estimate, ~75% percent of the Punjabi population is Muslim, accounting for about 90 million people, with 97% of Punjabis who live in Pakistan following Islam, in contrast to the remaining 30 million Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus who predominantly live in India.
The Punjabi Muslims typically observe the Islamic festivals, do not observe Hindu or Sikh religious festivals, and in Pakistan the official holidays recognize only the Islamic festivals.Official Holidays 2016, Government of Punjab – Pakistan (2016)Official Holidays 2016 , Karachi Metropolitan, Sindh, Pakistan The Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus typically do not observe these, and instead observe historic festivals such as Lohri, Basant and Vaisakhi as seasonal festivals.Census of India, 1961: Punjab. Manage of Publications The Sikh and Hindu festivals are regional official holidays in India, as are major Islamic festivals.Official Holidays, Government of Punjab, India (2016) Other seasonal Punjabi festivals in India include Teejon (Teeyan) and Maghi. Teeyan is also known as festival of women, as women enjoy it with their friends. On the day of maghi people fly kites and eat their traditional dish khichdi.
The Punjabi Muslim festivals are set according to the lunar Islamic calendar (Hijri), and the date falls earlier by 10 to 13 days from year to year.;Eid ul-Fitar, Ramzan Id/Eid-ul-Fitar in India, Festival Dates The Hindu and Sikh Punjabi seasonal festivals are set on specific dates of the luni-solar Bikrami calendar or Punjabi calendar and the date of the festival also typically varies in the Gregorian calendar but stays within the same two Gregorian months.
Some Punjabi Muslims participate in the traditional, seasonal festivals of the Punjab region: Baisakhi, Basant and to a minor scale Lohri, but this is controversial. Islamic clerics and some politicians have attempted to ban this participation because of the religious basis of the Punjabi festivals,The ban on fun, IRFAN HUSAIN, Dawn, Feb 18, 2017 and they being declared haram (forbidden in Islam).The barricaded Muslim mind, Saba Naqvi (August 28, 2016), Quote: "Earlier, Muslim villagers would participate in 🕉️ festivals; now they think that would be haraam, so stay away. Visiting dargahs is also haraam"
Buddhist festivals
Punjabi Buddhists are a minority in Punjab, India.Jain, Harish (2003) Punjab Hand Book: Population and Housing Census. Unistar Books. In the Punjab province of Pakistan, the Buddhist population is negligible.POPULATION BY RELIGION, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
Punjabi Buddhists celebrate festivals such as Buddha Jayanti.D. C. Ahir (1992) Dr. Ambedkar and Punjab. B.R. Publishing Corporation
Christian festivals
Christians are a minority in Pakistan, constituting about 2.3% of its population in contrast to 97.2% Muslims. In Indian state of Punjab, Christians form about 1.1% of its total population, while the predominant majority of the population being Sikh and Hindus. Punjabi Christians celebrate Christmas to mark the birth of Jesus. In Punjab, Pakistan, people stay up late singing Punjabi Christmas carol services.Sarfraz, Emanuel The Nation (25.12.2016) Understanding the changing face of Christmas . People attend churches in places such as Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts in Punjab, India that have a higher Christian population, to be part of Christmas celebrations.Hindustan Times (25.12.2015) Christmas celebrations held across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh Christians also celebrate Easter by engaging in processions.The Tribune (10/04/2017)
Hindu festivals
Punjabi Hindus celebrate a number of religious festivals.
Bavan Dvadasi
Bavan Dvadasi is a festival dedicated to the Hindu God Vamana. The festival is held during the lunar month of Bhadra. Singh writing for the Tribune in 2000 states that "Tipri, a local version of dandia of Gujarat and a characteristic of the Patiala and Ambala districts, is losing popularity. Its performances are now limited to the occasions of Bavan Dvadsi." According to Singh (2000) "Bavan Dvadsi is a local festival celebrated only in the Patiala and Ambala districts. Anywhere else, people are not aware of it. Now, tipri is performed during this festival only." Singh then states that Bavan Dvadsi "is to celebrate the victory of Lord Vishnu, who in the form of a dwarf, had tricked Raja Bali to grant him three wishes, before transforming into a giant to take the Earth, the sky and Bali's life". Tipri competitions are held during the festival. Dancers dance in pairs, striking the sticks and creating a rhythm whilst holding ropes.Singh, Jangveer (10.09.2000) The Tribune: Tipri rhythms are fading out in region accessed 04.10.2019)
Raksha Bandhan
Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan, or Rakhi, Quote: m Hindi rakśābandhan held on the full moon of the month of Savan, when sisters tie a talisman (rakhi q.v.) on the arm of their brothers and receive small gifts of money from them. is a popular, traditionally Hindu, annual rite, or ceremony, which is central to a festival of the same name, celebrated in India, Nepal and other parts of the Indian subcontinent, and among people around the world influenced by Hindu culture. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, symbolically protecting them, receiving a gift in return, and traditionally investing the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.
Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The expression "Raksha Bandhan", Sanskrit, literally, "the bond of protection, obligation, or care", is now principally applied to this ritual. Until the mid-20th-century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, also held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts, in which a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money; in some places, this is still the case. Quote: Rakri: On this date Brahmins go from house to house tying string bracelets (rakrī) on the wrists of household members. In return the Brahmins receive from an anna to a rupee from each household. ... This is supposed to be auspicious for the recipient. ... It has no connotation of brother-sister devotion as it does in some plains areas. It is readily identified with Raksha Bandhan. Quote: In North India, the festival is popularly called Raksha Bandhan ... On this day, sisters tie an amulet round the right wrists of brothers wishing them long life and prosperity. Family priests (Brahmans) make it an occasion to visit their clientele to get presents. In contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location, with some rendered as Saluno, Quote: (p 84) Potters: ... But because the festival of Saluno takes place during the monsoon when they can't make pots, they make pots in three batches ... Silono and Rakri. A ritual associated with included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.
Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy, in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by custom, do not visit her in her married home. Quote: Rakhi and its local performances in Kishan Garhi were part of a festival in which connections between out-marrying sisters and village-resident brothers were affirmed. In the "traditional" form of this rite, according to Marriott, sisters exchanged with their brothers to ensure their ability to have recourse—at a crisis, or during childbearing—to their natal village and their relatives there even after leaving for their husband's home. For their part, brothers engaging in these exchanges affirmed the otherwise hard-to-discern moral solidarity of the natal family, even after their sister's marriage. In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony. Quote: "... the heavy emphasis placed on the continuing nature of brother-sister relations despite the fact that in the North marriage requires them to live in different villages. That relation is celebrated and epitomised in the annual ceremony of Rakśābandhan in northern and western India. ... The ceremony itself involves the visit of women to their brothers (that is, to the homes of their own fathers, their natal homes) Quote: "In August comes Raksha Bandhan, the festival celebrating the bonds between brothers and sisters. Married sisters return, if they can, to their natal villages to be with their brothers. Their brothers, who typically live with the parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. Quote: In Savan, greenness abounds as the newly planted crops take root in the wet soil. It is a month of joy and gaiety, with swings hanging from tall trees. Girls and women swing high into the sky, singing their joy. The gaiety is all the more marked because women, especially the young ones, are expected to return to their natal homes for an annual visit during Savan. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.