Celebrate radiant Rajasthan with festivals in Bikaner. Multi-hued customs and enchanting ritualistic practices enamor you into a pleasurable state as you tour the festivals in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India.

A brilliant mosaic of ancient traditions, festivals in Bikaner bring to fore the enchanting past and heartwarming legends associated with religious occasions. See locals performing religious rites and observing traditional customs with devotion and fervor on your tours to festivals in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India.

Though the people of Bikaner celebrate several festivals, the ones that warrant a special mention are Gangaur, Camel festival and the Kolayat celebrations. Bikaner, the sleepy desert country comes alive with color, gaiety, music, dance, folk performances and joy during festival festivities that enliven the craggy and rustic desertscape.

So come and be a part of chromatic Bikaner that sports bright glittering hues on an ochre sand base as you let yourself go with gay abandon at the festivals in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. The Camel festival is of course the most important among all the festivals celebrated in Bikaner. Be wonderstruck at the enthusiasm of Ghair Ghoomar performers, snake charmers, brightly caparisoned camels and more at the Camel festival that brightens the Bikaner winter.

The Kapil Muni fair and Navratra festivals are two other important festivals that are observed with unmatched vigor in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India.

Know more about the festivals in Bikaner by visiting the web links mentioned below:

Camel Festival: Be a part of desert color and passion as you tour the camel festival in Bikaner with Indian Horizons. The camel festival in Bikaner is a lot more than a mere annual cultural extravaganza, it is a tribute to the ’ship of the desert’ that is so integral to desert life.

Delight in cultural competitions for the best adorned camel, the best camel haircut, camel milking, camel races and other camel games. See fire dancers at their enthusiastic best and take sheer delight in the panoramic vista of bright fireworks that light up dusky skies over the vast desert.

The camel festival brightens up the rustic camel country in January every year and creates the perfect platform for the people of Bikaner to show off their cultural customs, fantastic folk dances, folk music and enchanting rituals.

The 2-day camel festival mesmerizes you into a delightful world of merry-go-rounds, caparisoned camels, jugglers, puppeteers, snake charmers, fortunetellers, fireworks and undying desert appeal.

Day one of the camel festival begins with a procession of bedecked camels in all their fineries. The colorful camel pageant is followed by camel dance performances. Fireworks light up the sky at dusk. Day two of the camel festival sees an array of camel race events and other cultural performances.

On both the days you get ample opportunity to sink your teeth into camel milk sweetmeats and camel milk tea apart from a range of local dishes that are served at the stalls put up at the camel festival venue.

Kolayat Festival: Celebrated on a full moon kartik poornima in November every year, the Kolayat festival is a reminder of the living traditions of ancient India. Also known as the Kapil Muni fair, the Kolayat festival is a festive event of great religious significance for the Hindus.

Pilgrims and tourists congregate at the venue of the Kolayat festival and Kapil Muni fair that is located on the banks of the Kolayat Lake. Pilgrims bathe in the Kolayat Lake on the day of the Kolayat festival and wash away their sins. Fringed by thick banyan trees, the Kolayat Lake creates an aesthetic ambience that forms the ideal venue for the Kolayat festival celebrations.

According to popular legend, the legendary Kapil Muni meditated on the banks of the Kolayat Lake for the emancipation of mankind. In fact Kolayat in Bikaner was known as Kapilayatan after the sage Kapil Muni. The religious significance of Kolayat and the Kolayat fair is evident from the fact that both find a mention in the Puranas, one of the most significant Hindu scriptures.

All the 52 Ghats on the banks of the Kolayat Lake are enlivened with colorful activity, religious incantations and festivities during the Kolayat festival. Offerings of sugar drops, sweetmeats and milk pudding are made at the Kolayat temple that houses a marble statue of the sage Kapil Muni.

The Deepmala ritual lights up the Kolayat Lake at twilight when hundreds of oil lamps are lit and left to float on leaves over the placid waters of the Kolayat Lake.

Gangaur Festival: Gangaur festival celebrations light up rustic Bikaner during the Hindu month of chaitra that falls in the months of March-April.

Gangaur festival welcomes spring in Rajasthan and Bikaner is among the main centers of Gangaur festivities. The term Gangaur derives its origin from the words ‘Gan’ and ‘Gauri’. Gan refers to Lord Shiva and Gauri is of course his consort and the Gangaur festivities signify marital bliss and happiness.

The festival is of great significance for the women of Bikaner. Most families in Bikaner get their “puja rooms” whitewashed for the Gangaur festival. Ladies place idols of Gauri and Isar in their puja rooms. The deities are decorated with bright costumes and ornaments. Offerings are made as women sing devotional songs.

Women and young girls sport traditional attires and ornaments, decorate their palms with henna patterns and perform rituals that they believe will bless their married lives with prosperity and happiness.

Bikaner vibrates with cultural fiestas during the Gangaur festival. A large procession begins from the Zenana Deori at the Junagarh Fort main gate and passes through significant places in the Bikaner city before it reaches Talkatora where women immerse the idols of Gauri and Isar in the lake.

Ladies and maidens fast during the Gangaur festival and prepare sweets with milk and carry them on their heads to the banks of any water body and worship the deity Gauri and come back home distributing the milk sweets en route as prasad.