Basant – Kite Flying Festival
Lahore, being the richest cultural city in Pakistan celebrates a number of festivals throughout the year. It is most popular for the festivals of Basant and Mela Chiraghan, but many others are celebrated in the metropolis as well.
Basant (Jashn-e-Baharaan)
The most immensely colossal, or perhaps the best known, festival is that of Basant (or Jashn-e-Baharaan) held in February each year. Basant is a Punjabi festival celebrating the onset of the spring season and is withal called the Basant Festival of kites. This festival is celebrated with kite flying competitions all over the city especially in the Androon-E-Shehr (The Inner City or the Walled City) area. The firmament is literally filled with colorful kites of all shapes and sizes flown from rooftops. The kites are flown on strings called “Dorr” which is a special thread with cut glass embedded within which accommodates to cut the thread of competitor kites more efficaciously. Some of the kite-flying competitions get profoundly competitive and earnest. Women, on this day are visually perceived wearing an effulgent yellow dress up to the hilt. This festival gained more and more consequentiality over the years and used to magnetize people from all over the world. But since 2007, it has been ostracized.
