Sardarpur (Madhya Pradesh): The week-long vibrant Bhagoria festival, in which colourful markets are put up, began with great pomp and show in the districts of Dhar, Alirajpur, Khargone, Jhabua and Barwani.
In colourful haat/fair or Sarodiya (in tribal dialect) which is set up just before Holi, people of the tribal community gather and make purchases for Holi. The young tribals, in colourful dresses, turn up at the haats with their traditional music instruments to sing and dance as part of the festival. Apart from having all the trappings of a colourfulvillage fair, the festival serves as a matrimonial platform, for couples who have been seeing each other.
During the festival, young man smears gulaal on his love interest, as a way of proposal for marriage. If, by the end of the fair, she also applies gulaal on him, it shows her acceptance of the marriage proposal. She then goes to the boy’s house and get married around Holi with the respective families’ approval. Sometimes, instead of gulaal, the boy offers the girl a paan (betel nut) leaf as marriage proposal. Meanwhile, to ensure that no untoward incident occurs, heavy police force will be deployed to cater to thousands of people who are expected to take part in five districts.
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