he arrival of a few Sikhs from across the border raises awareness in the general public in Pakistan of the festival or mela of Baisakhi. While they are around these pilgrims say great things about the hospitality of the local population and how well their religious sites have been preserved. After visiting a number of places spread over the country, they go back to the countries they came from: India, Canada or Britain.

Baisakhi, meant to celebrate a good yield and a thanksgiving for abundance, was held after the harvesting had been done and the farmers had a bit of spare cash in their pockets to dispense with. It is now increasingly being categorised as a religious festival.

Three major festivals were celebrated with the onset of spring: Basant, Mela Chiraghan and Baisakhi. Most of the local festivals that are not Islamic in character are now associated with some religious group: Sikhs, Hindus or Buddhists and are disappearing from popular imagination.

Our lives have moved away from village culture to that of the cities and ever sprawling towns. The rural way of life is being distanced from with greater economic opportunities available in the metropolises. Everything rural is seen to be rustic, uncouth and unsophisticated. The cultural patterns have moved away to industrial and post-industrial work patterns - the service sector bringing its own way of life to society.

Another distancing away from the festival associated with the land has been the revolutionary developments in digital technology. The virtual reality is now prized and valued much more than real-life experiences. Even for the verification of real life experiences people refer for its authenticity to the virtual media ruled by international tech giants.

Bisakhi is valued greatly by both the Sikhs and Buddhists. Their religious rituals are intertwined with it as significant happenings of their most important religious figures are weaved round it.

The growing population and the disastrous spread of the city has in any case left very little open spaces for the mela to be held as it was when swathes of land facilitated the setting up of theatre plays, circuses, magic shows and sprawling markets.

This year, Mela Chiraghan was held a month before its usual date in the last week of March due to the onset of Ramazan. The general public were left in the lurch by the sudden announcement and mostly failed to participate in it. The growing population and the disastrous spread of the city has in any case left very little open spaces for the mela to be held as it was when swathes of land facilitated the setting up of theatre plays, circuses, magic shows and a sprawling market that brought rural existence to Lahore. The lack of space has shrunk the mela to essential rituals that too are dying or taking up virtual forms. The virtual reality is independent of space. It can be experienced in the palm of one’s hand rather than a visit to the actual place of occurrence.

The history of Mela Chiraghan has not really been documented in a serious manner. It appears that it became huge during the reign of Ranjit Singh. Lahore and the Punjab went through traumatic times after the death of Aurangzeb as the weakening Mughal empire was unable to stop the invasions from the north and northwest.

It has not been easy to revisit the history of the turbulent times because many documents have not been analysed in an objective manner. In many accounts it is impossible to separate fact from miraculous happenings. Ranjit Singh brought stability to the area. Later, the British restored order after another round of chaos.

The Baisakhi festival has not really been documented. It may have been associated with the happenings that have a more ritualistic ring to them. When it comes to history, some of the most persisting documentation has been done by institutionalised religions. Here, too, it seems that their documentation incorporated the cultural aspects. It seems that the two chartered a unified expression outlasting the separation of two or more streams that flowed into it. The post-modern generation cannot be faulted if they discover centres of belief in the palm of their hand.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore.