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SAIR-E-GULFARUSHAN

Sair-e-Gulfarushan or Phoolwalon-ki-sair is a unique three-day festival of flowers, which is a symbol of communal harmony, being celebrated by all the communities in the month of Bhadrapad at Mehrauli in Old Delhi. Pankhas or large palm-leaf fans are decorated with flowers and taken out in a procession to the darga of Khwaja Bakhtiar Kaki and then to the Jog Maya temple. The festival is of fairly recent origin, being started in the early 19th century by Queen Mumtaz Mahal wife of Mughal Emperor Akbarshah II (1806-1837) as a thanksgiving for the release of her son from imprisonment by the British.

The festival was banned by the British in1942 due to communal tensions, but was revived and restored to its original glory in 1962.