Camel Festival is celebrated every year in Bikaner to offer tribute to camels who make the harsh living in the desert possible. the Department of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan is the organizer of this two-day event held every year in the city of Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. It is also known as Bikaner Camel Fair or Bikaner Camel Festival and tourists from all over the world show interest in this festival. The festival is normally organized in the month of January and includes festivities like camel dances, camel races, neck shaking camel rides etc. This festival attracts a number of tourists who gather at Bikaner to behold the colorful celebration. Let us know more details about the Bikaner Camel Festival 2022 such as how it is celebrated, what’s its significance and many more here from this article.
Date of Camel Festival 2022
Every year, the Camel Festival is organized by the Department of Tourism under the Government of Rajasthan and the date of the event is also announced by the department itself. In the year 2022, the two-day camel festival of Bikaner is expected to begin on 8th of January and end on 9th January.
Significance of Camels & Bikaner Camel Festival
Camels are known as ship of the desert and they play a major role in the livelihood of people living in the desert area of Rajasthan. To honor their hardships and the fact that they make life in desert much easier, every year Bikaner becomes the host of the Camel Festival. Similar to the Bikaner Camel Festival, the Pushkar Fair, also called as Pushkar Camel Fair or Kartik Mela or Pushkar Mela, is celebrated in the town of Pushkar, Rajasthan, India. Among the various cattle fairs held in the state of Rajasthan, the Bikaner Camel Festival is the one celebrated with most excitement and pomp.
Camels of Bikaner region are known for their strength and endurance and they have played a major role in the army as well. In fact, the army of Bikaner had a Camel Corp known as Ganga Risala which took part in both World War I and World War II. Other than this, the Ganga Risala also played a major role in Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 before being disbanded in the year 1974. There is still a regiment in the Indian army where the camels serve as brave soldiers in the Border Security Force. They perform patrolling on the international border shared between Rajasthan and Pakistan.
Camel Festival Celebration 2022
The Camel Festival in Bikaner is celebrated for two straight days with great enthusiasm by the locals as well the tourists that visit there. A whole lot of festivities that includes camels’ participation are held on the first day of the Camel Festival. The festival begins with camel parades which starts from the Junagarh Fort and ends at the Dr. Karni Singh Stadium. Beautifully decorated camels dressed in vibrant bridles, traditional necklace and heavy anklets carry out the parade on the sand on the Rajasthani tunes played in the background. Many competitions such as contest for best decorated camel, best fur cutting design, camel milking and the best camel hair cut is organized on the first day.
On the second day of the camel festival, competition involving the local people as well as the tourists are organized. Contents and festivities like water pot race for human, wrestling competition of locals, turban tying competition for tourists, kabaddi match, puppet show, fire dance, etc are organized on the second day. Traditional Rajasthani folk dance performances are also carried out by the artists that add enchantments to the celebrations.
The Camel Festival of Bikaner is something worth remembering especially for the tourists who come to be a part of this festivity from all over the world. It gives them an opportunity to indulge in the celebrations and they can enjoy special tea and sweets prepared from the camel milk. Many other special dishes made of milk and other local cuisine are also prepared for the occasion of this festival. Stalls of beautiful jewelry, handicrafts, artifacts, pottery, etc are also arranged fro the tourists to shop from.
