Art & Culture Quiz: Festivals of India

Thrissur Pooram is held at the Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur during the Malayalam month of Medam, which falls in April and May.

Bali Yatra is held on the bank of the Mahanadi at Cuttack on Kartik Purnima and remembers the days when merchants of Kalinga sailed to Bali, Java and Sumatra.

The first ice climbing festival of Ladakh was held in the Nubra valley in January 2021, on the frozen waterfalls near the villages of the upper Nubra, as a way of building winter adventure tourism in a region that otherwise earns only in summer.

Commemorative coins are issued by the Government of India under the Coinage Act, and the set marking the Nabakalebara of the Jagannath temple was released at a function in Puri in March 2018 by the President.

The Hornbill Festival is held at the Naga heritage village of Kisama near Kohima from 1 to 10 December, the state formation day being 1 December.

Rongali Bihu, also called Bohag Bihu, falls in mid-April at the start of the Assamese month of Bohag and opens the new year and the sowing season.

Onam is the harvest festival of Kerala, celebrated in the Malayalam month of Chingam, and remembers the yearly return of the mythical king Mahabali to his people.

Ganesh Chaturthi in the month of Bhadrapada had long been a household worship in Maharashtra. In 1893 Tilak organised it as a community celebration with public pandals, processions and lectures, so that people of every caste could gather in one place at a time when political meetings were watched.

Chapchar Kut is the best known festival of Mizoram, celebrated in late February or March after the jhum fields have been cleared and before the sowing.

In the Rath Yatra of Puri, three chariots are drawn from the Jagannath temple to the Gundicha temple in the month of Ashadha.

The Surajkund International Crafts Mela is held every February at Surajkund in Faridabad district of Haryana, near the Delhi border.

Wangala is the post-harvest thanksgiving festival of the Garo tribe of Meghalaya, held in the autumn in honour of the sun deity Misi Saljong.