Basant Panchami celebrated with enthusiasm in city
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, January 22
The festival of Basant Panchami was celebrated with gaiety across the city with kites flying high in the sky on the occasion here today. Migrants celebrated the festival by organising special puja and rituals.
Balloons, filled with hydrogen, remained in much demand. People were seen buying balloons in bulk. Streets were full of vendors selling balloons. The sky was resplendent with thousands of colourful kites and balloons were floated in the air.
Ballon sellers made hay as they sold a single balloon for Rs 20. A large number of sellers from outside the city had specially come to the city for selling balloons today.
Ganga Ram, who was selling balloons on the Amrik Singh road, said he had specially come from Jalandhar to sell balloons here. Every year we came here on Basant Panchami to sell balloons.
Asked about the exorbitant price at which they sold a single ballon for Rs 20, he said this is the single day for which we wait as otherwise nobody buy ballons in such a high numbers, so we also have family members to feed.
Special kites shaped like lanterns, lamps and with popular celebrity faces make the festivities quite interesting and were witnessed flying high this year.
The kite-flying festival was organised at Doon Senior Secondary Public School, Kararwala. Different activities were organised such as for Classes Vth to VIIth kite making, 8th to 10th kite flying, turban tying for classes 9th to 12th. Even staff also participated in this event. School chairperson Charanjit Kaur Dhillon and principal Dr Parminder Kaur took part in this event. The school Principal made the students aware that this festival was also related to prayers of Goddess Saraswati Bandna.
Atul Garg, a kite lover, said, “Basant Panchmi is my favourite festival as it brightens up the sky with colourful kites. Like every season, this year also he has purchased kite string and kites of worth Rs 5,000, the kites with pentagon-type structure were a hit this year in the market.”
It is pertinent to mention that Basant Panchami has a specific meaning as Basant means “spring” and Panchami means “the fifth day”. Basant Panchami falls on the fifth day of spring. Basant Panchami is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the bright half of the Hindu luni-solar calendar month of Magha, which typically falls in late January or February. It is treated as the start of spring, though it is generally winter-like in northern India, and more spring-like in central and western parts of India.
