my dear friends,I am now very interested in the Indian culture.and I have two or three Indian friends. Are there also some Indian friends in the forum ?can anybody tell me the festivals that Indian people mainly celebrate?when do they often celebrate? thanks in advance!

Replying to [little friend]:

India, being a multicultural and multireligious society, celebrates holidays and festivals of various religions. There are three national holidays: Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti. In addition, many states and regions have local festivals depending on prevalent religious and linguistic demographics. Popular religious festivals include the Hindu festivals of Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Dussehra , the Islamic festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr, Muharram, Ramadan which are celebrated throughout the country. In addition, the Sikh festivals such as Guru Nanak Jayanti and the Christian festival of Christmas are celebrated in certain areas where these religions have a significant following.

You can find more details in the below links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_festivals

http://resources.alibaba.com/topic/222708/Deepavali_The_Festival_of_Lights.htm

Replying to [little friend]:

Here, we have a mix of faith, religion and ethnic practises, they are officially gazetted public holidays. For the Indians, there are the Diwali (8 November) or the Festival of Lights, Vesak Day(31 May) and the Thaipusam (1 February) or the fire walk.

Altogether there are eleven days of public holidays in a year.Our neighbour, Malaysia has 17 days of public holidays. Of course it will be good for the employees there and better for the employers here.

Dick