Annual Kite Festivals Throughout the Year

Beat Your Feet around the globe and all year long to enjoy fanciful, colorful kites filling the near horizon while partaking of the other festivities these celebrations have to offer. Many that are typical and others that are unique to the theme or locale, at whatever time of year kite enthusiasts gather to fly.

January

Getting off to a flying start we have the International Kite Festival held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. This kite extravaganza, held on the 14th of the month, is timed to coincide with the change-of-seasons celebration Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti, that marks the end of Winter and initiates with joy and jubilation the return of Spring.

It is a time of thanksgiving, the slumbering gods are awake and the portals of heaven are opened. This is a time to celebrate and make merry with a multitude of bright sky-sprites lifted to the heavens from the millions of revelers crowding the rooftops.

Making use of the 'firkees' or rolls of string treated with glue and ground glass, the famous and some times dangerous kite fights begin. An opportunity for complete strangers, kite makers and flyers drawn from around the globe for this annual kite holiday, and with the religious celebrants joining in, to make it a jubilant and vivacious festival.

While in Gujarat be sure to visit the renowned 'Kite Museum of Ahmedabad' for a look at the kite, then and now.

February

* The 8th is kite flying day everywhere (unsubstantiated rumor) *

In Pakistan the Vasant (or Basant) Festival held in the Hindu month of Magh (January/February) was once a celebration of colors, lights and kites but the kites and even celebrating the return of Spring have been banned since 2005.

The place to be for kite flying fun in February is the largest winter kite celebration in the Midwest, Color the Wind Kite Festival, held in the latter part of the month at McIntosh Woods State Park near Ventura, Iowa.

March

You will need wings on your heels to beat your feet from Iowa to Austin, Texas in time for the Zilker Kite Festival held in the first week of March.

Haulover Park Kite Festival held mid-month brings out kite makers and flyers to the sunny Miami Beach, Florida skies.

Then on to Washington DC, to end the month by enjoying the annual Smithsonian Kite Festival. Celebrated for over four decades, this truly international event has a 'green' theme for the year 2009. Honoring Mother Earth by celebrating with kites, made from renewable resources and powered by the wind.

April

Closing out the month we have the Morro Bay Kite Festival. To get the kite festival started on the right foot the Salinan Indians will perform a traditional 'Blessing of the Wind' ceremony right after the parade. Join the fleet of kites in the picturesque setting at the foot of Morro Rock

May

Japan's Hamamatsu Festival is held early in May and is the home of the 'hatsudako', a birth celebration using kites to honor the child which is then followed by the sound of trumpets calling the sky-warriors to assemble for the kite battles.

June

Rounding out June is the annual Summer Kite Festival in Lincoln City Oregon. Named by Kitelines magazine as one of the best places to fly kites in North America. Lincoln City honors that reputation with not one or two, but with three kite festivals each year, including an indoor kite celebration.

July

Late July and the soothing surf of the Pacific coast laps over your toes after hot-footing it to the Berkeley Kite Festival held in Cesar F. Chavez Park at the Marina, on the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Area Sports Kite League will be organizing the West Coast Kite Championships at the festivities.

August

"Always in August" is the motto of the Washington State International Kite Festival. Held in Long Beach, WA , the site of the only museum dedicated to kites, kite makers and kite fliers in the USA, the 'World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame'. Voted the best kite festival in the world, be sure not to miss this extravaganza.

September

The mid-month Family Day Kite Festival is held on the Marina Green, San Francisco's panoramic waterfront park. Meet at the Make-a-Kite pavilion and then you're ready for a day of kite flying and professional demonstrations.

October

The second Sunday is always World Kite Day.

'One Sky One World' has been flying kites around the planet, for peace in the community and the world, since 1986. Join a local festival or start the first in your area.

November

All Saints Day (November 1st) is the annual Sacatepequez Kite Festival celebration day that is perhaps unique among kite holidays. This festival held near Antigua, Guatemala always takes place in the cemetery where everyone parties for the day.

December

In the British Isles the 13th is the day to get caught up with your kite flying before the Christmas holidays. With the Great Ouse Kite Flyers (GOKF) having a fly-in at Priory Park, Bedford, Bedfordshire and the NKG staging two Xmas fly-ins for the same day: One overlooking the Mersey, Otterspool, South Liverpool, Merseyside and the other at Stainland Recreational Ground, Stainland, near Huddersfield and Halifax, Yorkshire

Then the GOKF are back to it on the 27th with a fly-in at Meadows Country Park, Ham Lane, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

This would be the place to give due recognition to the British kite flyers. They are dedicated enthusiasts that are officially active every month of the year except January. This gives them an opportunity to visit the Gujarat Kite Festival in India.

Beat Your Feet

These listings of holidays celebrating the kite or using the kite to celebrate are just a few of the gatherings around the planet on any given day and cannot even begin to touch the surface of local kite festivities world wide.

Travel the globe throughout the year and on a windy day an impromptu or annual kite festival will be near. In the words of the renowned K'te philosopher, Khun Fieu Zed;

Wind at back
Kite in sky.
Smile

Reference:

www.aryabhatt.com
www.about.com
www.thingsasian.com
www.kitefestival.org/
www.fdkf.org/
www.colorthewind.org/
www.oregoncoast.org/
www.highlinekites.com/
www.kitecalendar.co.uk/
www.jpa@earthnet.net/