South India Travel Tours

Fairs & Festivals

Andhra Pradesh is a calendar of one long procession of festivals. Festivities here are characterised by colour, gaiety, enthusiasm, feasts and a variety of prayers and rituals. Travellers and tourists are struck by the scale and multiplicity of the festivities that populate the cultural scene of this land. The state is famous for celebrating festival of every region and religion with equal pomp and gaiety. Be it the age old traditional hindu festivals or the muslim festivity of brotherhood or Christmas. The diversity of the state is manifested in its people, languages, religions and cultures.

Deccan Festival / Hyderabad Festival
Deccan Festival will be held at Qutub Shahi Tombs Hyderabad on Second Friday, Saturday & Sunday of April every year.

This festival brings the choicest talent from the field of Music, Dance and Theatre. Ghazals, Mushairas, Qawwalis, Classical dances and Music. Reverberate in the air of Hyderabad. The Festival reflects the love the Hyderabad always had for art and Literature. The Deccan Festival essentially mirrors the glorious Qutub Shahi epoch.

Pearls & Bangles Fair
This festival also includes Pearls and Bangles fair, displaying creations in lustrous pearls and multi-hued bangles that are local specialties, and a Food Fair, with items covering both Andhra and Hyderabadi cuisine. Cultural programs, food stalls, arts and craft shops etc. are well organized.
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Lumbini Festival
Lumbini festival is organized from the 2nd Friday to Sunday of December every year at Hyderabad and Nagarjunasagar to highlight and celebrate the 'Buddhist Heritage' of Andhra Pradesh.
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Visaka Utsav
'Visakha Utsav' is organised by A.P. Tourism every year from the third Friday to Sunday of January. The Visakha Utsav is organised to bring together a kaleidoscope of brilliant hues .

The festival comprises of a variety of cultural programmes, sports events, food fair and exhibitions, fashion shows, trekking etc.
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Rayalaseema Food and Dance Festival
Organised in October to highlight the arts and cuisine of Rasyalaseema area of Tirupati, Chitoor District.
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Other Festivals

Makara Sakranti
SANKRANTI is an important festival for Telugus and people in rural Andhra look forward to this harvest festival, which has different attractions for different people. With crops harvested people have both money and leisure to make merry with.

This is the festival of peasants. It is celebrated when the sun passes from Sagittarius to Capricorn & the transition is called Makara Sankranthi. A month before the festival the harvesting of crops begins.

Gangireddula Vadu comes with a colourfully dressed pet bull. The bull sways its head, dances, sits and stands and does things in accordance with the rhythm of the music and commands of its master.

The first day is called as Bhogi. On this day before sunrise youngsters collect dry twigs, grass, waste paper etc., make a heap & light a bonfire. Women and girls draw patterns on the ground using mortar powder. They make Gobbemmas i.e., lumps of cowdung and place it on the drawings in front of their houses. People pick up some ash from the bhogi fire & rub it on their foreheads.
The special dish of the day is Pongal, a mixture of husked greengram and rice with salt and pepper powder cooked in a pot.

The second day is the actual Sankranthi day. In the evening men & women go to their neighbours and relatives to offer sesame seeds, sugar & sugarcane pieces.

Kanumu the third day is celebrated as a cattle festival. On this day the peasants wake up early to bathe their cattle & paint their horns with bright colors and tie bells around their necks. Some farmers go out to their fields, sacrifice a goat or a sheep and sprinkle the blood in their fields. Still some others take cooked rice and milk to the cattleshed offer some of it to the cattle and take the remainder to their fields and scatter it there. They believe that this offering keeps the ghosts away from their crops. In the villages on this day cockfights are held.
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Mahasivarathri
Mahasivarathri means the great night of Siva. It is believed that Lord Siva was born in the form of a lingam on the night of Krishna Chaturdasi (14th day of the dark fortnight).

On this day after bath a lingam is placed in the mandapam. It is then worshipped with bel leaves (Aegle marmelos maaredu). In the evening the devotees take bath & go to the Siva temple & chant Siva’s name continuously, listen to Siva’s stories & remain awake the whole night & break their fast the next day.

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Ugadi
Ugadi is the Telugu New Year day. It is specially associated with Pacchadi (chutney) in telugu. The chutney is prepared with tender flowers of neem, jaggery or sugar & new tamarind. The whole family has to eat the chutney. The chutney is offered to the deity first and then eaten by the members of the family.

The whole family wears new clothes. Around 3.00 p.m. a brahmin sits on the pail outside the front yard door & recites the panchangam. All the nearby residents gather to listen to him about the new year, rain fall, agriculture, prices, education, eclipses, and auspicious days for marriages, health and astrological forecasts for the individuals and the community based upon the planetary position. In the evening many competitions are held like bullock-cart races, physical duels, lifting of heavy weights, running races, card games and so on.
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Vinayaka Chaturthi /Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesha Chaturthi is one of the most popular Hindu festivals. This is the birthday of Lord Ganesha. It is the day most sacred to Lord Ganesha and falls on the 4th day of the bright fortnight of 'Bhadrapada' (August - September). Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated throughout India, as well as by the devoted Hindus all across of the world.

History
One day Parvathi, wife of Lord Siva made a boy with turmeric & breathed life into it. She then asked the boy to guard the door till she took her bath. The boy was instructed not to allow any one to enter. When Siva came and tried to open the door, the boy objected to it. In a fit of anger Siva severed the boy’s head with his Trishul. When Parvathi came to know what had happened to the boy she began to weep.

Seeing this Siva’s heart melted and he promised to put back life into the boy. After a massive search Siva’s disciples could find the head of an elephant to fix on the boy’s body. From then on he was called Gajanan, the elephant-headed boy. From this day is celebrated as birth of Lord Ganesha. The idol of the Lord is worshipped for 10 days and on the eleventh day it is immersed in river or sea amidst a huge procession.
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Pongal <