We happened to be there for the first day of a 15 day Spring festival. It was a little parade through the narrow streets of town which went on from before sunset til around midnight. It was the slowest parade you could imagine, moving maybe 20 feet at a time and then stopping for about half an hour. That made it easier for photographers, and gave me time to draw and sip chai at a sidewalk shop.
Up in front, people made complex paintings on the street by putting down powdered colors--like ground up colored chalk--mostly by hand, but sometimes with little tools that rolled on the ground. After the procession passed, the paintings were trampled and all that was left was a blurry pile of color.
There were two Very Loud marching bands, complete with rolling loudspeakers for the amplified harmoniums, which sound like they belong in an old-time circus. One band was at the front and one near the middle.
A flower garlanded jeep was in the middle, in which the head priest (we assume) was riding, taking calls on his cell phone while people paid him respect by touching his feet.
A beautiful young woman sat on a large lotus blossom shaped seat, pulled on a wheels if I remember right. She had an instrument on her lap and took a specific pose. I think she was depicting a goddess. There were also a couple of horses with young children riding, two at a time.
A couple of large shrines being pulled or carried, with microphones and chanting. Look at the beautiful garlands decorating them. Men had trays of various things to hand out to the crowd: ceremonial water, sugar crystal lumps, almonds and other nuts, powdered ginger (we think) which often got put on your forehead but Jack ended up with a lot of it in his hair. It was a good color for him!
A side note: It doesn't seem that people actually wear flower garlands except sometimes men at hindu temples. I had one on at a sikh temple, which Lawrence had been given to wear earlier that morning (all the guys had one on there), and a guard noticed it and made me take it off and put it in my bag.
One thing I know about traveling: one spends a lot of time being mystified by events unfolding around you!
An important component of the procession are the hand-carried chandeliers on both sides, all wired together and powered by rolling generators. These pretty lights are set in cement filled buckets, so they can stand on their own, but are carried through the very narrow streets on people's shoulders. The light carriers are people of all different ages, and they squeezed up the street and under low shop awnings and through the crowds for 4-5 hours, never setting their lights down.
When you move in and out of the parade, you have to duck the chandelier wires--as well as navigate the crowd, cows, cow poop, deep gutters, motorcycles who still push their way through, and try not to lose sight of your people, all at the same time. On top of all that, the bands were both playing different songs at the same time, at top volume.
I loved seeing rows of women in saris standing at the side, waiting for the procession to pass by. It varies from place to place, but in Pushkar, maybe 3/4 of the women wore saris. The other 1/4 were mostly tourists, and a few stylish young Indian women or teen girls. Saris are beautiful, lean towards red/pink/orange, and look so elegant. Women wear them while riding sidesaddle on motorcycles and scooters, working in the fields or construction sites. Sari fabric can often be seen hanging from rooftops, billowing in the breeze, after being laundered.
We sent out our laundry in Pushkar, and it came back all smelling of roses.
I was sorry to leave Pushkar, but our next stop held new and exciting adventures! (The next stop always does.)
It was this crowded, the whole time
The background in this photo is one of the street paintings, with a candle in the center
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