Urs Festival of Rajasthan

Name of Festival: Muharram Festival

Time of Celebration
Urs Festival is celebrated from the 1st to the 6th day of Rajab; the seventh month of the Islamic calender.

Major Territory of Celebration
Urs Festival is celebrated in the Ajmer, Rajasthan state of India

About Festival
Urs is celebrated at Ajmer ,Rajasthan state of India every year at the tomb of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. The Urs Festival in Ajmer , Rajasthan is marked with quwwallis – sung at night. Dargah Sharif in Ajmer is the place where the Saints mortal remains lie buried and is the site of the largest Muslim Fair in India.

Urs Festival is an occasion for thousands of devotees to congregate at the shrine and offer their prayers.On the Urs Festival peoples gather from all over the world. Celebration is satrted by the hoisting of a white flag on the dargah by the ‘Sajjada Nashin’ . The tomb is washed with rosewater and covered with an embroidered silk cloth.

Qawalis (poems) are offers in the saint’s honour and also sing devotional songs or Qawwalis. Kheer is distributed among the devotees as blessed food. The Urs festival celebrations are inaugurated by Sajjada Nashin, a descendant of the Chisti family.

Pilgrims carry chadars, jasmines, roses, sandalwood paste, gilaph and neema offerings on their heads to the door of the main Dargah where these are handed over to khadims who offer these to the saint’s tomb.

All of Ajmer seems to be in a festive mood and several programmes are organised to mark the festivals.