Uttarayan — Kite Festival

Uttarayan — Makar Sankranti, celebrated on 14 January — is Ahmedabad’s most spectacular festival, the day the entire city climbs to its rooftops and fills the winter sky with kites. From dawn to dusk, families gather on terraces across the old and new city, flying kites of every colour and battling to cut their neighbours’ strings amid cries of “kai po che!” when a kite is downed. The sky turns into a vast, shifting canvas of colour, and the rooftops ring with music, food and laughter. As night falls, glowing paper lanterns (tukkals) are sent up, turning the darkness into a field of floating lights. Ahmedabad’s International Kite Festival, held around Uttarayan, draws master kite-makers and flyers from across India and the world, with giant and exotic kites displayed along the Sabarmati Riverfront. The festival is also a feast — undhiyu (a mixed winter-vegetable casserole), jalebi, chikki and til (sesame) sweets are the traditional fare. For the visitor, Uttarayan in Ahmedabad is an unforgettable, joyous spectacle — best experienced from a rooftop, kite-string in hand, amid the colour and energy of the whole city at play. (A major public festival on 14 January; rooftops citywide; the International Kite Festival on the riverfront; book stay well ahead.)