Dresses

Male Dress:

Men of Punjab like to wear their traditional attires that includes kurta pyjama. They wear kurta like shirt; it is a loose shirt that is straight cut and long. Their pyjamas are very loose; it is like baggy pants that are tied to waist. Few men too wear kurta over tehmat or loongi, it contains resemblance to sarong. While winter season, you will get to see Punjabi people wear dark fresh colorful sweaters. Few Punjabi boys and also men wear loose slacks or pants with t-shirt or collared shirt. You can easily identify Sikh people by their costumes, due to their religious customs they always wear turbans called as pugs. They also wear Punjabi traditional shoes that are known as Juttis, it is very famous among the men of urban and rural areas. They feel very comfortable in their attire and they also look very impressive in this costume. If you observe the modern city Punjabi males, you will get to know that as per the change in time their dressing pattern has been so much changed. They have also accepted western dressing style and they are equally feeling comfortable in modern t-shirt and jeans as they feel in kurta and loongi. On the special occasions, they also like to wear trousers and shirts. Punjabi males always look impressive in their traditional attires; in those attires their personality gets enhanced.

PUNJABI JUTTI FOR MEN

Female Dress:

The famous, convenient and comfortable dress worn through this state’s women is known as churidar Kurta. Traditionally, this type of dress is only worn by Punjab state's women, but in present time, it is also worn by other state's people. Majorly young generation prefers to wear this comfortable attire. Punjab state's women and girls too dress in salwar kameez of fresh and bright colors, accompanied by attractive and silky duppattas. Their salwar kameez has been distinguished in 2 pieces such as top piece or shirt and kameez & salwaar. The duppatta, which they wear over the salwar kameez is majorly a shining fabric which females mostly wear over their shoulders and over the head. You will also get to see women wearing shawls that have been decorated by using intricate phulkari designs. Their shawl is entirely wrapped in folk motis and large silk embroidery created in jewel tones.

PUNJABI JUTTI FOR WOMEN

PARANDI

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Phulkari

Phulkari: Traditional Dress of Punjab

It started in Patiala state of Punjab in India. Patiala rose to prominence amongst many princely states of Punjab before independence. Phul means flowers and Kar means the work. So Phulkari literally means Flower Work on the rough heavy cotton.  Throughout the Punjab, in the Hindu,Muslim and Sikh communities alike, women embroider Odhanis (veils) or Chaddar (wraps) ornamented with Phulkar, literally “flower work” and Bagh, garden, a variation where the embroidery completely covers the support material. The support fabric is most often an auspicious dark red, or more rarely, an indigo blue or a white reserved for elderly women, on which the embroidery is executed in untwisted floss silk called pat, sourced from Kashmir, Afghanistan and Bengal and dyed yellow,orange,burgundy,bright pink, purple, blue and green in Amritsar and Jammu. Darning stitch is used to embroider from the reverse side of the fabric, with the longer float on the face, thus allowing large surfaces to be densely embroidered with economy. Aside from their everyday use as veils, the Phulkari is integrated into the lives of the women. and is an indispensable element in ceremonies, especially those concerning birth,death and marriage. When a girl child is born, the women of the family organize a great feast, marking the beginning of the task of the child`s grandmother in creating the future bride`s trousseau. The most significant items of the trousseau are the chope, a reversible Phulkari worked double running stitch and wrapped around the bride after the ritual bath two days before the wedding, and the suber phulkari, composed of five eight petaled lotuses, worn by the bride when she walks around the sacred fire during the wedding ceremony. A phulkari is also worn 11 days after the birth of a son, when the mother goes out for the first time after delivery, and when visiting a temple during religious festivals to request prosperity and happiness for loved ones.

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Giddha

GIDDHA:

Giddha is Punjab's most famous folkal dance for women. In Giddha, the women enact verses called bolis, folk poetry, and dance. The subject matter of these bolis include everything from arguments with the father-in-law to political affairs. The dance rhythm is set by the dhols and the distinctive hand claps of the dancers. These days, people associate Giddha with Bhangra.

Giddha is a popular folk dance of women in Punjab and exhibits teasing, fun and exuberance of Punjabi life. The dance is derived from the ancient ring dance and is just as energetic as Bhangra and at the same time it manages to creatively display feminine grace, elegance and elasticity. Giddha is essentially danced in circles. Girls form rings and one of the dancers sit in the centre of this ring with a dholki (drum). The vitality of Bhangra can also be seen in the Giddha dance of the women of Punjab. This dance translates into gestures, bolian-verses of different length satirizing politics. The dancers enact verses called bolis, which represent folk poetry at its best. The subject matter of these bolis is wide ranging indeed – everything from arguments with the sister-in-law to political affairs figure in these lively songs - bolis can also cover themes from nature to excesses committed by the husband and his relatives, some talk about love affairs to the loneliness of a bride separated from her groom.

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Bhangra

BHANGRA:

Bhangra is one of most popular dances of India performed during Baisakhi only by the men in Punjab. Among the most virile, vigorous and captivating dances of India, Bhangra includes tricks and acrobatic feats in its performance. The songs include recitation of meaningless `bolis`, words such as hoay, hoay. Or Balle, Balle... 

The Bhangra is perhaps the most virile form of Indian Folk Dances. It strongly reflects the vigor, the vitality, the leaven of exuberance, and the hilarity permeated among the rural folk due to the promise of a coming bumper crop. The drummer usually is standing in the center of the circle & is surrounded by dancers. 

When the wheat crop is ready for ripening, the breeze flows softly & touches the surface of the golden crop creating a ripple and reckoning the sickle, it is a time of celebration. It is absolutely a time, when the hard labor of the farmer is about to bear fruit, it is a time of rejoicing and merry making and through Bhangra their emotions find a perfect outlet for spontaneous expression of genuine happiness. The Bhangra season concludes with the fair of Baisakhi when the wheat crop is harvested. 

Bhangra is considered the king of folk dances in Punjab. There are several styles of performing Bhangra like Sialkoti, Sheikhupuri, Tribal, Malwa, Majha etc. One of the step or move of Bhangra is also similar to the moves of Shiv-Tandav dance, which is danced on one leg by Shiva. Damru i.e. hand-drum is also used in Bhangra. 

The season in which Bhangra is performed begins with the sowing of wheat and then every full moon attracts teams of young men in every village who dance with enthusiasm for hours. The dancers gather in an open space & form a circle around the drummer. Drummer holds two sticks with the help of which he beats the drum, to beckon the dancers to a higher tempo of movement. At the initial stage dance starts with a slow movement of their feet. But as the tempo increases, the hands, the feet and in fact the whole body comes into action. The dancers whirl round and round bending and straightening their bodies, jumping on one leg, raising their hands, clapping with their handkerchiefs and exclaiming the words "Bale Bale, Oh Bale Bale…" which not only inspire themselves but also others for the dance. 

The drummer is usually standing at the center of the circle during the time of performance. At intervals the tempo of the dance becomes slow, dancers stop moving, but continue to beat the rhythm with their feet. One of the dancers from the group come forward near the drummer and covering his left ear with his palm sings a boali or dholla, derived from the traditional folk songs of Punjab. Picking up the last lines of boali, the dancers again start dancing with greater vigor as before. 

For powerful music set up, in addition to a drum, chimta-musical tongs and burchu and sound of the beats from earthen vessels are used. The costumes of a Bhangra dancer are unique, which suits the vigor of dance. They are consists of a bright, colored Patka on the head, a lacha or lungi of the same color, a long tunic and a black or blue waistcoat and ghunghroos on the ankles. Some dancers also wear small rings (nuntian) in their ears as an ornament. 

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Folk dances

FOLK DANCES:

The exuberance and vitality of the people of Punjab are vigorously displayed in their folk dances.With the drum beat or to the tune of some other instrument of folk music, the energetic feet of the people of Punjab are spontaneously set in motion to deliver a folk dance.The folk dances of Punjab are can be simply classified according to male or female folk dances, where the bhangra, jhummar, luddi, julli, dankara and dhumal are male folk dances while sammi, giddha, jaago and kikli are the female folk dances.

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Martial art

 Gatka (Sikh Martial Art):

Gatka is an ancient martial art which has been thoroughly battle-tested and has existed in northern India for many thousands of years. It is based on the basic principle of unification of the mind, body and spirit in a rhythm of life to train a saint-soldier to be able to defend himself or herself.Although it uses the sword as its primary weapon, many other weapons are available to the Gatka master. Today, this art exists exclusively amongst the Sikhs who have passed down the flamboyant techniques through generations, since their sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind wore the two swords of Miri (temporal, worldly) and Piri (spiritual, transcendental). The Sikhs have been responsible for the revival of this early art ensuring it's survival despite mass persecution of the native population in India by foreign invaders like the Mughals and others for many hundreds of years.

Gatka is a complete martial system which uses spiritual, mental and physical skills in equal portions to help one fully competent in defending themselves and others. It is a system that can only be used in defence as per:

"When all other means have failed, it is proper to take the sword in one’s hand", Guru Gobind Singh in Zafarnama.

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Games

 Games of Punjab:

By nature Punjabis are sports-lovers. They have produced some world-famous sportsmen like Dara Singh, Milkha Singh and Balbir Singh, who have made a name for themselves and for the country in wrestling, athletics and hockey. There are all types of  games  suiting the age and stamina of all persons. While the young persons are engaged in Kabaddi and wrestling, the smaller ones play gullidanda, kokla chhapaki, khiddoo etc. Older persons have tahna and chopar to keep them occupied.

 Sports are a common phenomenon at fairs. The participants jump into the fields to play kabaddi, wrestling, gripping the wrist etc. Sometimes inter-village championships are held. 

KABADDI:

This game is popular even today and is played now by both boys and girls. This was included in the Asian Games also and is popular all over south Asia. The game is played between two teams. A line is drawn between the two teams and each team would send a player across the line. If the player after crossing the line is able to touch a player of the opposite side and came back without being caught, the team doing so would win and a point was added to its score. This process by the player crossing the line has to be performed in a single breath. The team with higher score would be the winner.

BULLOCK CART RACE:

The bullock-cart race reflects the understanding between a farmer and his best friend - his bullocks (not bollocks!). it is as difficult as horse riding but since all farmers cannot afford horses, they have found another version of it. Bullock cart racing is considered as being cruel to animals by many animal rights activists who are fighting to ban it in India. As you can see in the video the bullocks collide and fall down during the race. For rural Punjabis it is a way to relate to the animals and the fields, all at once. And it is tradition...

KHO-KHO:

Kho Kho is a sport played by teams of twelve players who try to avoid being touched by members of the opposing team, only 9 players of the team enter the field. It is one of the two most popular traditional tag games of South Asia.Apart from South Asia (mainly India and Pakistan), it is also played in South Africa.

HOCKEY:

Hockey  is a team sport  which is played between two teams of eleven players with hockey sticks and a hard, solid plastic ball. At the turn of the 21st century, the game is played globally, with particular popularity throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania, and South America – in addition to being the national sport of both India and Pakistan.

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