Alas, we cannot list here every festival in every village across India, but local festivals are listed throughout the guide. We've listed the main national and regional celebrations. Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain festivals follow the Indian lunar calendar and their dates therefore vary from year to year against the plain old Gregorian calendar. Determining them more than a year in advance is a highly complicated business best left to astrologers. Each lunar cycle is divided into two paksa (halves): "bright" (waxing) and "dark" (waning), each consisting of fifteen tithis ("days" - but a tithi might begin at any time of the solar day). The paksa start respectively with the new moon ( ama or bahula - the first day of the month) and the full moon ( purnima ). Lunar festivals, then, are observed on a given day in the "light" or "dark" side of the month. The lunar calendar adds a leap month every two or three years to keep it in line with the seasons. Muslim festivals follow the Islamic calendar , whose year is shorter and which thus loses about eleven days per annum against the Gregorian.

You may, while in India, have the privilege of being invited to a wedding . These are jubilant affairs with great feasting, always scheduled on auspicious days. A Hindu bride dresses in red for the ceremony, and marks the parting of her hair with red sindhur and her forehead with a bindu . She wears gold or bone bangles, which she keeps on for the rest of her married life. Although the practice is officially illegal, large dowries often change hands. These are usually paid by the bride's family to the groom, and can be contentious; poor families feel obliged to save for years to get their daughters married.

Funeral processions are private affairs, and should be left in peace. In Hindu funerals, the body is normally carried to the cremation site within hours of death by white-shrouded relatives (white is the colour of mourning). The eldest son is expected to shave his head and wear white following the death of a parent. At Varanasi and other places, you may see cremations; such occasions should be treated with respect, and photographs should not be taken.