ISLAMABAD,
February 14 (IslamOnline.net) - Pakistanis celebrated on Saturday,
February 14, the annual Basant popular festival, which marks the
beginning of spring, with colorful kites filling the skies.
Enjoying
it with the same zeal and fervor as every year, the festival had a
special taste for the people of Lahore, the capital city of Punjab
provinces, this year.
Hundreds
of Indian families flocked to Lahore to mark this day with their
Pakistani relatives and friends.
Also,
Indian personalities from showbiz, politics, arts and culture have
crossed the borders to fly colorful kites and celebrate the Basant
with the Pakistani elites.
Famous
Indian pop star Sukhbeer Singh and Alap musical band will be
performing in Lahore later Saturday and Sunday as part of Indian
participation in the Basant celebrations.
Many
more Indian film stars, models, filmmakers, writers, intellectuals,
business tycoons and political figures have found space on the
rooftops of Pakistan stars and public figures to fly kites and dance
the local popular Bhangra dance.
This
year, the festival marks not only the beginning of spring season but
also the resumption of Pak-India bilateral talks after a five-year
hiatus.
An
Indian delegation comprising foreign ministry officials is arriving in
Islamabad to hold talks with Pakistani counterparts over disputed
issues in pursuance of peace initiatives and confidence building
measures taken by the two countries over the last one year.
Both
Hindus and Muslims living in Lahore used to celebrate this
agriculture-related festival together in pre-partition days.
When
British rulers left Indian after dividing it on the basis of religion,
border disputes and political and military tensions never allowed the
two nations to jointly celebrate this day.
India
and Pakistan fought three full fledge wars and many more skirmishes
before the Indian leaders extended a hand of friendship last year to
give peace a chance.
Kite
Flying
 |
|
A vendor displays a kite depicting renowned Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan (AFP)
|
Over
the past decades Basant has become the most celebrated cultural event
in the country.
As
it marks the beginning of spring with yellow flowers every year,
yellow has become the color of Basant.
Boys
and girls wear yellow, flower of the same color flood the streets and
houses.
Most
enjoyable segment of Basant festival is kite flying.
No
one knows for sure as to how and why kite flying became integral part
of this popular festival but more than one million take part in kite
flying.
The
competitions begin on a Saturday evening and after a full night and
day of flying kites, it finishes late Sunday evening.
Search
lights lit the sky through the night as people gather on their
rooftops busying themselves in the competition.
Basant
is an ancient Punjabi festival, though ways of celebrating it have
been changing time to time.
Kite
flying was made a part of celebrations by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a
Sikh ruler of the Punjab 150 years ago.
Traditionally,
Lahore formed the center of celebrations with the entire city coming
out to celebrate this joyous occasion.
Thousands
of outsiders join every year these festivities in Lahore.
Some
religious powers have been campaigning to ban celebrating Basant as an
un-Islamic activity.
However,
the argument that it is a Hindu-Sikh festival impressed neither the
Lahore High Court, which rejected such a plea two years back, nor the
Pakistanis who go on celebrating Basant on a grander scale each year.
