Sankranti – Kite Festival

Sankranti - Kite Festival

Markets are blushing with colorful kites since traders display a variety of kites to attract the customers ahead of the festival called Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan.   In India this festival is mainly celebrated by flying kites in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan.  This year’s main attraction in the kites is the prints of recently released popular films like “Singham” and “Bodyguard”.    These kites are attracting the enthusiast and even the NRIs.

International Kite Festival is the main attraction of Ahmedabad in these days.   From 1989, this event is organized in Ahmedabad, as a part of the official celebration of Uttarayan.   One gets to see highly unusual kites as the expert kite makers and kite flyers from all over the world are invited for this festival.

Sankranti - Kite Festival

Wau-balang kites from Malaysia, llayang from Indonesia, rokkaku fighting kites from Japan share the sky along with the giant banner kites from USA, Italian sculpture kites and Chinese flying dragons & many more hi-tech modern wonders.  On this day every known variety of kites can be seen on Sardar Patel Stadium of Ahemadabad.

The competition is all about to battle the near by kite flyers to cut the strings and bring their kites down.  For the competition, the preparation by the participants starts much earlier.  They find their favored kite makers who will make strong and resilient kite bodies.  It is important that the kite body should be of springy bamboo frames and kite paper must be stretched to exactly the right tension.  In India production of kites and supply can be seen on streets from the beginning of November.

This year in the International Kite Festival 2012, Ahemadabad {9-12 January}, in addition to the kite flying, some more attractions have been added by the organizers.

• Light and sound show
• Workshops and training on kite making.
• Special pavilion to show history and significance of kites.

Sankranti - Kite Festival

Uttarayan will be celebrated this year on 15 January, as Makar Sankranti in Northern part of India and  Pongal in Tamilnadu.

Wish you all a very Happy Makarsankranti!!!