THE sky is not visible, people are dressed in their yellow best and families converge on their roof tops for countless hours of fun and laughter. This is basant, the coming of the Spring season that is celebrated in almost ever agrarian society, albeit with a different name. And the most important part of this festival is the kite.
The exact date and origin of the kite is not known but it is believed that they were flown in China more than two thousand years ago. One legend suggests that when a Chinese farmer tied a string to his hat to keep it from blowing away in a strong wind, the first kite was born.
The earliest written account of kite flying suggests that it came into being in about 200BC when the Chinese General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty flew a kite over the walls of a city he was attacking to measure how far his army would have to tunnel to reach past the defences. Knowing this distance his troops reached the inside of the city, surprised their enemy and emerged victorious.
The use of kites in China is well known. Long ago they were used to send messages as well as special wishes to the gods. There is an old story of a mother who orders such a kite from a painter of holy pictures to help her son become strong and wise. She tells him, “I want a picture of a dragon, the symbol of wealth, wisdom, power and nobility, so that my son will grow up big and strong. But I do not want an ordinary picture. I want you to paint it as a kite with strings. Then I can fly it right up to the sky and the gods in Heaven will see it, instead of having to come down to the temple.”
This tactic seemed to work, as her son immediately seemed “bigger and stronger, richer and nobler” to everyone who saw him. It wasn’t long before the villagers flocked to the painter wanting similar magic kites.
The basant festival developed a long time ago when it was originally held on the ninth day of the ninth month. On this day, kite-flying was taken as a symbol of rising higher and of being better, stronger, smarter and finer in everything one does.
The art of kite flying was eventually spread by traders from China to Korea and across Asia to India. Each area developed a distinctive style of kite and cultural purpose for flying them. Kites were brought to Japan about the 7th century by Buddhist monks. They were used to thwart evil spirits and to insure rich harvests. The earliest evidence of kite flying in the Indian subcontinent comes from miniature paintings from the Mogul Period around 1500. A favourite theme was of a young man skillfully using his kite to drop messages to a lover who was being held in strict seclusion from him and the rest of the world. But above all, basant came to dominate the tradition of kite flying in this part of the world.
Historically, the basant festival has been celebrated in many nations of the world regardless of their origin and religion. However, in Pakistan, the celebration has been called a non-Muslim culture and thus detested by some. What these people fail to understand is that human beings are born liberal and in the course of their lives, they develop into social animals. basant is one of the activities that helps them keep in touch with their social self. Other label basant as a waste of precious resources, time and money especially.
Nevertheless, these types of festivals should be encouraged, one of the few healthy activities in our otherwise troubled society. This holds true especially for the young generation in Pakistan. Long it has been associated with the Kalashnikov culture, pointless political activities and the like. Basant can prove to be one of the weapons that will attract our students, many of whom have become angry over the period of time because of lack of job opportunities. At the same time, measures and steps should be taken to make basant safe.
Kite flying enthusiasts, especially children often fall from roofs; go running on roads, between running traffic raising the spectre of a horrible road accident. The threads used in kite flying are so sharp that they have been known to cut the necks of passers by. It is here that the government should do its bit.
Instead of ban the festival altogether, as some over protective people have suggested, the government should make laws that would make sure that such accidents don’t happen. Some of things that it should take in mind are:
• Kite flying should be allowed only on those roofs that are protected by boundaries no less than 4-feet tall.
• Police and the Traffic Police should be on the look out for children and the young, on the man roads of the city, who dash across in the hunt of a kite.
• In every community there should be an open area specified for this festival on the announced basant day. It should be properly prepared and decorated for basant, so that people living in that area should have an incentive to use that place for this purpose.
One thing is for sure and that is that these kinds of festivals should not be discouraged in today’s world where they provide a sense of relief from the tensions of day to day life. The government should take the ball in its own court and handle it with implementation of certain safety rules and laws. There is no harm in making people pleasant minded and enhance the peace in the place where we live.
THE sky is not visible, people are dressed in their yellow best and families converge on their roof tops for countless hours of fun and laughter. This is basant, the coming of the Spring season that is celebrated in almost ever agrarian society, albeit with a different name. And the most important part of this festival is the kite.
