Chandigarh City - Festivals

The Festival of Gardens is a three-day celebration which is organised in the last week of February is also on the national calendar of festivals. Earlier it was known as Rose Festival it intended to encourage people to walk through the Rose Garden and enjoy the beauty of roses. The festival includes performances of music and dance, both classical and folk, flower shows, events for children, exhibitions by local artists, photographers and craftsman and a wide range of amusements. Since 1997 it is known as the Festival of Gardens. The various competitions are organised i.e childern competetion, dog show, flower decoration competetion. The various companies put up their stall to show various products.

April Fools' Day (April 1) a unique gathering of various poets from all over the country gather at Chandigarh on this day. Even those who do not ordinarily enjoy poetry look forward to the Maha Moorkh Sammelan, or Conclave of Colossal Fools. Chandigarh is the only city in India hosts such a gathering.

Baisakhi is the first day of the new year in the traditional Vikrami calender, it celebrates the wheat harvest, and it is main festivals for Sikhs as this is the day of foundation of Khalsa. As the capital of two states, Punjab and Haryana, this day sees festivities organised by both the state governments as well as the Administration of the UT, and by all Chandigarhian.

The Mango festival is held in June. Mango-growers from all over India are invited to enter their prize fruits in the various competitions. Visitors to the fair can see and taste all the traditional varieties of the fruit as well as the latest hybrids from the agricultural universities. It is also an occasion for agro-industries, and food industries processing mango into jams, pickles and canned fruit to display their wares.

Teej In the first week of August this traditional festival is celebrated by the women. The Rock Garden with its swings and pavilions is the festival venue and the day is basically a grand picnic with songs and dances, purchase of new bangles, painting the hands with mehndi.

The Chrysanthemums Show In the month of December Chrysanthemums Show is held at Terraces Flower Garden in the city's Sector 33. You can see a multi-coloured wall-to-wall carpet of chrysanthemums. Hundreds of varieties of the flower are on display and city gardeners vie for coveted honours in the competitions.

The Plaza Carnival is held on an open-air stage set up in Sector 17's central piazza every evening of Saturday. The weekly almost three-hour programme draws a large crowd and provide an opportunity for talented local artists to do their stuff.

The Chandigarh Carnival. This carnival is celebrated in the second week of November every year for three days. The carnival opens with a colourful procession which everyone is encouraged to join. The carnival is a time for students and Childerns to show their talent and elders too participate in a number of competitions held at same venue.

Rose Garden

This is Asia's largest rose garden, Zakir Gulab Bag spread out over 30 acres of land, in sector 16. Here bloom 50,000 rose-trees of 1600 species. One can only see the flowers and cannot pluck them. Named after India's former President, Zakir Hussain, the garden was established in 1967 under the guidance of Chandigarh's first Chief Commissioner late Dr. M. S. Randhawa. Apart from roses emphasis was given on trees of medicinal value and some unique specimen trees to enhance the beauty of the garden. Some of the medicinal trees planted here are bel, bahera, harar, camphor and yellow gulmohar. It is located next to the city centre. Affording a sight to behold during spring, the rose plants have been planted beautifully in carved-out lawns and flowers beds.This garden is the venue of the annual Festival of Gardens, an event listed on the national calendar of fairs and festivals. This is one of the main cultural events of the city drawing thousands of visitors.

Rock Garden

Chandigarh has the distinction of having a unique world-acclaimed Rock Garden. It consists of art objects, fashioned from industrial and urban waste. It is situated between the Capitol Complex and Sukhna Lake in Sector 1. It nestles amidst 20 acres of woods in the form of an open air exhibition hall, theatre trove and a miniature maze all rolled into one vast fantasy land of art and landscape. It is without doubt, a tourist spot that is a must on the itinerary of every visitor to Chandigarh.

THE CREATOR

The Rock Garden has become almost a heritage site. Artists and connoisseurs from all over the world flock to see this unique and amazing creation. The concept is daring, the appeal perennial. Visitors leave in admiration, only to return again. The creator of the Rock Garden, Nek Chand, was a Road Inspector in the Engineering Department of Chandigarh Capital Project. He roamed the Shivalik Foothills and picked up stones resembling bird, animal, human and abstract forms. He brought them on his bicycle. The first seven years (1958-65) were spent collecting natural material, urban and industrial waste. Gradually his collection mounted to a staggering twenty thousand rock forms of amazing beauty. These were deposited around a hut which he had built for his work and contemplation. He built the Rock Garden from this improvised hut which was located by the side of a stream.

COLLECTION

Since the site where Rock Garden stands today was also used as a dumping ground for urban and industrial waste, Nek Chand picked up pieces of foundry lime-kiln and metal workshop wastes and also shaped them with his creative genius, resembling human, animal or abstract forms. These pieces have been innovatively displayed as sculptures in the garden.

Also, on display are shapes sculptured by using a variety of discarded materials such as frames, mudguards, forks, handle bars, metal wires, play marbles, crowns of soft drink bottles, porcelain, auto parts, broken bangles, pieces of slate, burnt bricks and even human hair recovered from barbers' shop.

Nek Chand salvaged a variety of debris from demolished structures, waste from lime kilns, discarded street lights, electrical fittings, broken sanitary ware, crockery etc. thus demonstrating how urban and industrial waste can be fruitfully recycled and used in creative pursuit.

KINGDOM

In the true spirit of a make-believe `kingdom’ the Rock Garden has fourteen different chambers, like the forecourt : housing natural rock-forms, a royal poet’s and a musician’s chamber complete with a pond and a hut; the main court (Durbar) where the king’s throne adorns the place with natural stone forms depicting gods and goddesses lining the place; a swimming pool for the queen, etc. Another phase of the garden comprises the grand palace complex, minars, water falls, an open air theatre, a village, mountains, over bridges, pavilions and areas for royal pleasures. The tree and root sculpture offers a powerful counterpoint to the existing vegetation.

An open air theatre and a vast pavilion with a centre stage are the other highlights of the Rock Garden where art and culture blend amidst the rustic and exotic environs of the garden.

The Teej Festival, when the Rock Garden assumes a festive look, holds a special attraction for tourists …. Young damsels partake in the fun and frolic by swaying on the giant swings, while others adorn their hands with traditional Mehandi (henna), amidst joyful songs and dances.

As you stroll through the Rock Garden, enjoying the awe inspiring creation, you may find yourself face to face with the unassuming, down to earth artist Nek Chand himself, in flesh and blood, working at or supervising his 'kingdom'.