Kalash Festival

• Festivals

Kalash Festival is one of the most unique and taboo for many in Pakistan and elsewhere on earth. Kalasha tribe celebrates many festivals around the year. The three main Kalash Festivals are Chilam Joshi (spring festival), Choimus (winter festival) and Uchal (summer festival).

Kalash Festival – Chilam Joshi (Spring)

Chilam Joshi Festival is one the most vital kalash festivals.  Kalash Festival of Chilam Joshi is also known as Kalash spring festival. The Kalash people celebrate this four day festival across all three Kalash valleys of Rumbur, Bumburet and Birir. A large number of domestic and foreign tourists attend the Chilam Joshi festival every year.

Chilam Joshi begins with “Milk day”. Ten days prior to the festival, The Kalasha people store milk from their households. On the day of the festival the people of Kalash offer their libation. The festival reflects their unique cultural richness, the harmony in their society and message of peace to the world. They ask for blessing from the God and pray for a prosperous year of agriculture and health and safety of their herds.

The main objective behind the Kalash festival of Chilam Joshi is that Kalasha men and women can find themselves a spouse to get married. The women wear traditional attire with lively colors and hair dresses have patterns of flowers on it. They wear beaded necklaces which compliments their dresses and head gears.

Men wear traditional Shalwar Kameez with a waistcoat made of wool. They dance together and sing in a circle on drum beats. Every year this festival brings smile to the bachelors and spinsters of Kalash Valley tribes as it gives them an opportunity to choose their life partners and announce their names on the last day of the festival

Kalash Festival: Uchal (Summer)

Uchal, also known as Utchal is a summer Kalash festival. Kalasha people during this festival pay homage to God by celebrating the harvest and also thanking their God for blessing them with good food and crops. Corn, buttermilk and cheese are prepared to celebrate the festival.

People of Kalash take a procession to a high plateau which is located outside to the village in Balangkuru and they pray to the God and this is where the long night of dancing begins. This Kalash festival is moved to different locations of the valleys and it continues for several days

Kalash Festival – Choimus (Winter)

Kalash festival of Choimus begins on the winter solstice and holds great importance among the Kalasha people. Choimus, also known as Chitirmas, Chaumos is a winter Kalash festival. The annually observed event symbolizes and forecasts prosperity of the village and its people in the coming year. The locals perform rituals for purification during the festival at the dawn of the new year.

People go out in numbers to seek foxes which are a good omen to sight at this time. Torch lit processions arrive from nearby villages at the main traditional dancing place called a “Charsue”. The dancing and festivities are held indoor that go late into the night as the local wine is handed around the bonfire.

The tribal elders gather at hilltops to watch the rising sun of the new year that is followed by goat sacrifices made to the Goddess, “Jastak”, and the blood is sprinkled at the temple Jastarkhan.