India’s rich and glorious civilization is mirrored in its innumerable festivals. These festivals mark the seasons which signal to man the time for work and the time for relaxation, the commencement of the agricultural cycle with sowing in spring, and its culmination with the harvesting of the golden grain. And then, of course, we have, in endless variations of legend and myth, the hallowed perceptions that there is an ever-renewed war of light and darkness, of the divine and the demoniac in the unceasing evolution of the world.

Baisakhi (also called Vaisakhi) is a harvest festival which is celebrated on the thirteenth day of April according to the solar calendar. It is celebrated in North India, particularly in Punjab and Haryana, when the rabi crop is ready for harvesting. This tough agricultural operation is rendered into a lighter occupation by merry community festivities such as the Bhangra dance by men, who pound the ground with vigorous steps accompanied by singing. Women, too, break into a revelry of dances, principally the Gidda dance, executed with fervour and rhythmic exactitude. On these occasions, men and women adorn themselves with gay-coloured clothes and traditional jewellery.

Generally, the sites of these festivities are on the banks of the rivers which have their sacred import with myths and legends woven around their origin and names.