LAHORE: In the sky above the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac), the spring evening wind was flowing fast on Monday while people were dancing to the tunes of traditional music to celebrate spring season in the event, titled ‘Aao Ral Mil Chaitar Manayie (Lets celebrate spring).

Punjab has an old tradition of celebrating spring in a traditional way. At Pilac, Sanjh, Lok Sangat and South Asia Partnership, in collaboration with Pilac, celebrated the colours of spring through storytelling, drumming, puppet show, dances and folk songs.

A large number of performers and folk, traditional festival fanciers gathered at Pilac from across Punjab to rejoice the occasion, the very festivity of the weather of flowers and lush green fields. The festival opened to the tunes of traditional music, beats of drums and Jhoomar dance.

The inaugural session, dotted with speeches and performances, had much to offer to an audience draped in Punjabi traditional colours.

On the occasion, the speakers talking about Punjabi Sufi poetry in connection with spring said that all the Sufi poets gave considerable place to the season in their poetry. They said the present day intolerance and religious terrorism had cure in the poetry of Sufi poets.

There were numerous performances by a host of performers from Punjab, the folk singers, Mian Muhammad Mansha and Maqbool Ahmed, came all the way from Shah Kot to perform, Khushi Mirasi from Jhang came up with storytelling, an age old tradition of Punjab. The impersonators from Raiwind also showed their skills. The Puppet show was from Multan and Jhoomar dance from Shah Kot.

The storytellers entertained the audience with their art. Puppet show was also interesting and it was based on Punjab’s folk stories such as Dullah Bhatti, Puran Bhagat and Raja Rasalu, the folk stories widespread in the rural Punjab.