BASANT - FESTIVAL OF SPRING SEASON

'Basant' festival of joy. It is celebrated on national level in Pakistan. Basant festival is celebrated on the arrival of spring. The celebration of spring known is as 'JasHn-e-bahara' in Urdu, and is celebrated in the entire country.In particular Basant festival is celebrated in Punjab. Other cities in which basant is mainly celebrated are Karachi, Hyderabad, Faislabad, Sialkot and Rawalpindi/ Islamabad,Quetta etc.

Young girls and boys wear yellow dresses and dance on the beat of Dhole that's called Bhangra, play with colours, exchanging gifts and express their love to each other in different ways.

On these days of this  fabulous festival, the sky is covered with all kinds of beautiful large and small kites that decorate the sky in a glorious and pleasing day. It looks like some professional painter has painted the sky with beautiful colors. In basant festival kites are of medium size normally from 1 to 4 feet in diameter. Kites are usually made of special papers or colourful sheets for this purpose.The kite is tied with unique thread called “Doore” or "Manja". Doore is the most important thing in kite flying and many precautions are taken to prepare it.

Thread of Doore is locally prepared.It is spread on the thread in an exclusive way which then becomes “DOORE”.

Hundreds of tourists not only within country but also from outside the country comes to enjoy this festival in Pakistan. Some pressure groups strongly condemn basant festival. Many processions and protests are reported who are of the opinion that as every year million of rupress are spent on basant festival which if used in helping poor or in welfare could be more productive. While on the other hand, other says that basant increases economic activity in the city and others businesses as basant attracts people from around the corner who are willing to pay for whatever the city offers.

But such a joyful festival has a dark side as well. Hospitals are packed with kite flyers that fell off roofs and children who were hit by cars as they ran down the streets to get kitesas their faces are turn towards the sky to watch the kites.

Some cities of the country darkens when sharp kite cords rolled in powdered glass or made of steel cuts off electricity wires. Therefore, government has announced the reward of Rs5000, for anyone who reports the usage of metal wire by anyone as “Dor”.