The year in motion
Festivals with a before and after.
Preparation, food, music, work and public space—not only the most photographed moment.
10 growing entries
Festival coverage recognises regional differences and the people whose labour makes each observance possible.
Festivals in focus
Three celebrations. Their own space.
Chhath, Diwali and Dussehra shape distinct rituals, memories and public worlds across Bihar. Each deserves to be explored in depth.
Chhath
A demanding, luminous observance shaped by water, fasting, family labour and offerings to the setting and rising sun.
Diwali in Bihar
A night of lamps, Lakshmi-Ganesh Puja, household renewal and distinctive foods that continues into the observances around it.
Dussehra in Bihar
Ten days of worship, fairs and neighbourhood movement, carrying both public celebration and intimate beliefs about a spiritually charged time.
Across the calendar
Bihar’s festive year
Seasonal food, pilgrimage, song and regional observance keep the calendar moving long before and after its most visible days.
The long festive season
From Dussehra through Diwali and into Chhath, homes and public spaces move through weeks of preparation and celebration.
Janmashtami in Bihar
Krishna’s birth celebrated through fasting, midnight worship, song and elaborately decorated swings made for the child deity.
Makar Sankranti in Bihar
A winter festival shaped by the solar calendar, the harvest cycle and a day of dahi-chura, til sweets, lai and khichdi.
Holi across Bihar
Not one celebration but many local sequences of mud, colour, song, food and neighbourhood custom.
Sama-Chakeva
A Mithila tradition of songs, crafted figures and sibling affection associated with the arrival of winter.
Bol Bam and the Kanwar journey
Roads, saffron-clad travellers and shared acts of endurance transform parts of Bihar during Shravan.
Shravan at Baba Garibnath
A major Muzaffarpur devotional season shaped by Shiva worship, pilgrimage and a city adapting around it.
Culture has names and faces
Meet the people who carry it.
Individual artists, cooks, speakers, organisers and custodians belong in the People archive, connected to the traditions they sustain.
Explore People →