Basant Panchami – today on the fifth lunar day of the month Maagh a festival of Spring is celebrated in Punjab. This is a festival typically dedicated to the season of the year. Before partition this festival was celebrated by people of all religions by Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims and had nothing to do with religion. People wore yellow clothes, added saffron to sweets and cooked yellow halva and rice. Ladies joined together and swayed swings and men pulled their kites. After partition all the charm of Basant fairs was lost and now Hindus and Sikhs go to temples and
Gurudwaras and pay obeisance. In Amritsar Golden temple hymns in Basant raga are sung throughout the month of Maagh. Basant the yellow colour which is the colour of spirituality and wisdom comes from the colour of the season from glowing flowers of the sarson or mustard that are interspersed with the young yellow green sprouting wheat saplings. In winter the trees in Punjab become bare but they still spread their magic when they try to peep through the thick fog that engulfs the whole scenario. Punjab is most scenic in the spring when morning begin cold strewn with fog and sun trying to show its strength and dispersing the
fog, school children waiting shivering on roadside for their school buses, milkmen collecting milk. The sun finally pushes the fog and the day with its yellowish light spreads its magical charm and young wheat sprouts and mustard look like a nature’s best woven carpet. Hindus on this day pay obeisance to Goddess Saraswati who is considered as the bestower of word and knowledge. In ancient times children were initiated to learn words on this day. Sufis who travelled with the invaders from turkey into India enjoyed the beauty of this season and wrote couplets to praise the Almighty and that is how this festival was celebrated by all.