An educational institute as it is, the site of the Viswa Bharati University in Santiniketan is famous for its annual seasonal cultural festivals. All of these festivals were started by the Tagores. These festivals are the celebrations of the different seasons of Bengal and of the cultural fabric of rural Bengal. There are sevral such festivals out of which the Poush Mela and Basanta Utsab are the most prominent.
Poush Mela is the Winter Festival of Santiniketan. It begins on the twenty-seventh day of the Bengali month pf Poush usually December 22/23 to mark the foundation day of Santiniketa. The fetivites start with a community prayer with Vedic hymns and writings by Rabindranath Tagore and his father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore being read aloud. Well known bengali artists and students of the university sing Rabindrasangeet ( songs composed by Tagore ).
The graduation and other award giving ceremonies of the different educational units of Santiniketan including Patha Bhavan, Shiksha Bhavan etc are held on the second day.
At the fair irself, the stage is never quiet. Baul songs, kirtans and other forms of music and dancing from Bengal are performed by folk artistes, students and many eminent artists from Kolkata.
Magh Mela is another important annual festival of Santiniketan. It is usually celebrated between february 6-8 each year in the celebration of the foundation of Sriniketan, a rural reconstruction and industrial center set up by Tagore in 1922. A rural handicrafts fair at Sriniketan is the high point of this festival.
The most beautiful and popular Basanta Utsab is the climax of the seasonal celebrations of nature and the culture of Santiniketan and Bengal and India as a whole. It is the Spring Festival of colors started by Tagore and celebrated on the day of Holi in March. This festival has transformed into one of the biggest cultural events of Bengal and draws crowds from all across the globe.
Students, alumni and teachers all dressed in the beautiful Baashonti (yellow) color play Holi, the festival of colors in celebration of the vibrant colors of nature in Spring. Abeer (gulaal in Hindi or colored powder ) of many colors is smeared at everybody and all around.
As is the tradition for all cultural events of Santiniketan, music is the underlying essence of the Basanta Utsab as well. Baul, kirtan and Rabindrasangeet and Rabindrnrityo ( dancing to the tunes of Tagore, dance form introduced by Tagore ) is performed all around.
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