International Kite Festival in India
January 14 · Level 9 · #432 of 2238
India’s International Kite Festival in Gujarat accompanies Uttarayan, a January celebration in the solar calendar. Kite makers from different countries gather for an airborne exhibition whose arrangement changes with every gust.
How it is celebrated: participants fly traditional kites alongside enormous novelty designs. In Ahmedabad and other cities, families take their own kites and festive food onto rooftops to join the activity overhead.
Local kite battles are about more than flying highest. Competitors try to cut one another’s lines with their own, while people below chase the kites that drift away after losing a contest.