Festival ·
Chilam Joshi: spring in the Kalash valleys
Milk, wildflowers, walnut leaves and days of dancing: how the Kalash of Chitral welcome spring and send their herds to the summer pastures.
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Festival calendar
A year of celebrations
When the valleys gather. Dates follow local calendars, harvests and the seasons, so they shift from year to year: check before you plan.
January
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March
April
May
June
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August
September
October
November
December
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Festival
Kuch: Shimshal's journey to the summer pastures
Each year, the women of Shimshal lead their yaks, goats and sheep up to the high pastures of the Shimshal Pamir, marking the journey with rites of milk, butter and thanksgiving.
Festival
Shandur: polo on the roof of the world
Every summer, Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan meet on a high mountain pass at around 3,700 metres to play freestyle polo, with music, camping and tens of thousands of spectators.
Festival
Ginani: Hunza celebrates the first harvest
When the first crop ripens, Hunza gives thanks: music at the forts, the Mir in the fields, the new grain cooked and shared, and dancing in the courtyard of Baltit Fort.
Festival
Bofao: when the Mir of Hunza sowed the first seed
Hunza's royal sowing festival, revived at Altit after decades: a procession from the fort, prayers in song, and a symbolic first furrow ploughed with a pair of oxen.
Festival
Tagham: the Wakhi festival of the first seed
In early spring, the villages of Gojal and Shimshal open the farming year with juniper smoke, a symbolic ploughing and the greeting 'Shogun Bahor Muborak'.
Festival
Takhum Rezi: sowing the seed in Ghizer
In the valleys of Ghizer, spring opens with a symbolic ploughing, polo, bonfires on the mountainsides and a shared dish of diram passed from house to house.
Festival
Uchal: the Kalash give thanks for the harvest
When the shepherds come down from the high pastures with cheese and butter, the Kalash valleys celebrate the wheat and barley harvest with offerings and dancing through the night.
Festival
Chawmos: the Kalash New Year at midwinter
The longest and most sacred of the Kalash festivals: two weeks of purification, offerings for the ancestors, bonfires and torchlit processions ending at the winter solstice.
Festival
Mayfang: Baltistan lights the longest night
On the winter solstice, villages across Baltistan carry fire down from the mountainsides, swing burning torches and light bonfires to mark the end of the longest night.
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