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Many villages and towns in Uttarakhand celebrate seasonal fairs and festivals. The most important and well known of the religious events are the Ardh Kumbh and the Maha Kumbh Melas, at Haridwar; this event attracts millions of devotees from all across the world.
Many of the state’s more secular events, however, are connected with the cycle of seasons, and mark specific events, such as harvest. Fairs are a time of great gaiety and fun, with sellers of all kinds of wares- food, clothing, trinkets, household wares and the like; there’s invariably feasting, singing, dancing and merrymaking- all accompanied, in many cases, by plenty of local liquor too!
Important fairs in Uttarakhand - and most of these are organised by the tourism board- include:
January : Uttarayani Mela (Rameshwar, Chitrashila, Bageshwar,Hanseswar)
March : Jauljibi Mela, Poornagiri Mela (Pithoragarh),Jhanda Fair (Dehradun)
April : Thal Mela (Pithoragarh), Dwarahat Mela, Somnath Masi Mela (Almora)
July-Aug : Shravan Jhoola Mela (Jageshwar, Almora), Kavand Mela (Haridwar)
August : Devidhura Mela (Pithoragarh)
September: Nandadevi Mela (Roopkund, Almora, Nauti, Dandidhara, Munsyari)
October : Gananath Mela (Almora)
Other important annual events include the International Yoga Week (Rishikesh, early February), Badri-Kedar Festival (Badrinath and Kedarnath, early June), Garhwal Festival (end of October) and Kumaon Festival (beginning of November).
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