With Nauroz celebrations underway across the globe, what better time to dive into various spring and new year festivals Pakistanis celebrate? A thread: 🌻🌹🌷🌼🪷🌸🌺 #SpringEquinox#Spring #نوروز
Basant:
It marks the advent of spring with people taking to the rooftops for kiteflying, traditional sweets, friends and family. It is celebrated in Punjab and KPK, along with Quetta and Khuzdar in Balochistan. People dress up in colourful clothes, (often yellow).
Baisakhi:
Celebrated on April 13th, it is a harvest festival that marks the Punjabi New Year. It is celebrated with a lot of fanfare, traditional Punjabi attire, processions, and traditional music and dance.
Holi:
Also known as the "Festival of Colors," it is celebrated by the Hindu community across Pakistan in March. People celebrate this festival by smearing coloured powder and water on each other, dancing, and enjoying sweets and other delicacies.
Jashn-e-Baharan
“Celebration of Spring” is marked by melas, music, dance, and poetry recitals, and people decorate their homes and streets with colourful flowers and lights in Sindh, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.
Nauroz:
One of the oldest festivals in the world, the Persian New Year's festival is celebrated on the first day of spring, usually the 21st of March. It is celebrated with particular zeal in Balochistan, GB, and by the Hazara community, Afghan migrants and some Pakhtun tribes.
Chilim Joshi Festival:
It is celebrated by the Kalash community to welcome the arrival of spring, and blooming cherry blossom flowers. During the festival, people wear traditional clothes, sing and dance, and offer sacrifices to their gods and goddesses.
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Music has historically been at the forefront of resistance around the world.
During the 1940s, Urdu poetry took centre stage as protests erupted across British India, with calls for Independence louder than ever. A thread:
During the Pakistan Movement (1940-47), amid calls to join the Muslim League, Fateh and Mubarak Ali Khan sang the Qawalli, “Muslim Hay tou Muslim League Main Aa” - it not only became a hit but also became a slogan for the Muslim League.
Kaifi Azmi penned the poem: Aurat. It centres female agency, and participation in the Pakistan movement. Both revolutionary and romantic, it is reminiscent of what Jinnah thought and said about the political participation and agency of women.
When Sikandar conquered parts of the Indian Subcontinent, he appointed one of his men there, and went back.
Soon after, the people of the Subcontinent rebelled against him, and appointed a new King.
However, he soon turned tyrannical, and no one dared to utter a word against him. A great philosopher at the tome, tried to make the King see sense, however, he was imprisoned.
When the King needed the philosopher, he freed him again, and the scholar then wrote the book, Kaleela Wa Dimna. Kaleela and Dimna are two jackals, the main characters in the story.
In most parts of Pakistan, it is common for young girls to braid their hair parted in the centre, with two braids. Older women however, tie up their hair in one single braid.
A thread on plaiting hair:
Kalasha women however, a unique ethnic group, wear several braids in their hair throughout their lives. Little girls may wear their hair in one or two braids, but older woman have more plaits.
Mongol maidens tie their hair in several braids, but as they grow older, they make two braids. Mongols see the hair as an extension of the body, which is why Mongol women cover their braids.
With #Heera_Mandi trending, perhaps it is time to introduce you to Azeezun: the real-life courtesan and freedom fighter from the 1857 War of Independence: a thread
Following the British recapture of Kanpur, Lt. Col. Williams was tasked with investigating the events. Nanak Chand, a loyalist lawyer, and Janakee Prasad, a merchant, provided recorded testimonies mentioning Azeezun, a courtesan. Who was she, and what do we know of her?
She was nicknamed "the Demoisello Theroigne of the revolt" by the British for she rode on horseback, dressed in the uniform of the 2nd cavalry, armed with pistols and decorated with medals.
Muslin, an ancient cloth from Bangladesh, renowned for its fine, gossamer finish, has a history of trade which spans as far back as to ancient Greece. While much has been documented about its historical significance, folklore surrounding it is less frequently discussed. A thread:
In later times, the fabric was a favourite for Mughal royalty. Nicknamed “baft-hawa” which means “woven air” – travellers recorded that it was so fluid that one could pull 91m through the centre of a ring. Another said that 18m of Muslin could be fit into a pocket snuff box.
The fabric was weaved with thread so delicate that it was often invisible to older people. Hence, spinning the thread was almost exclusively done by young women.