Set 8 | Important Indian Festivals, Fairs and Calendars MCQs 2024

Correct Answer is B.

• Onam festival is celebrated in Kerala.
• A 10 day long festival, Onam is a well renowned Hindu festival that is celebrated with huge devotions.
• The striking feature of this festival is that it involves Kathakali dance, indoor and outdoor games, boat races and several featuring songs.
• Onam has been celebrated to mark the homecoming of King Mahabali, who used to rule Kerala during the ancient period. The period of Mahabali was said to be a golden era of Kerala.

Correct Answer is B, C & D.

• Boat, Vishu and Attuvela festival are important festival of Kerala.
• Vishu is one of the important festival and is said to be the New Year for the Malayali people, based on the ancient Malayalam calendar.
• Vishu festival is celebrated in the month of April.
• Kerala is famous for its backwater rides. Most famous boat races in Kerala are Nehru Trophy Boat Race in Alleppey, Champakulam.
• Moolam Boat Race at Alappuzha, Vallam Kali at Punnamada Lake and Payippad Jalotsavam at Payippad Lake located in the district Alappuzha.
• Attuvela Mahotsavam is a water carnival. Legend has it that it represents the welcome ceremony accorderd to the Goddess of Kodungalloor who arrives to visit her sister, the Goddess of Elamkavu.
• The temple has Goddess Bhagavathy as its presiding deity.

Correct Answer is A & C.

• Ugadi is a New Year celebration in states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
• Ugadi or Yugadi, which is literally translated as the start of the new calendar – Yug (new) and Adi (the beginning), falls on the first day of Chaitra- the first month in Hindi calendar.
• It is also the first day when there is a change in the pattern of the moon’s orbit.
• Ugadi is celebrated a day after the first new moon and after the sun passes the celestial equator on the spring equinox.

Correct Answer is C.

• Kambala is an annual buffalo race held between November and March by the farming community in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, and in areas bordering Kerala.
• The festival is dedicated to Kadri’s Lord Manjunatha, an incarnation of Lord Shiva.
• It’s believed that the recreational sport is organised to appease the gods for a good harvest.

Correct Answer is C.

• The largest fair in the state of Rajasthan, the Pushkar fair, is a camel and livestock fair held all across the town of Pushkar during October and November.
• The fair now attracts tourists from all over the country and the world.
• Apart from the regular transactions of livestock, several competitions are held such as ‘Longest moustache’, ‘Bridal competition’, ‘Breaking the pot’, etc.

Correct Answer is C.

• Tarnetar Mela is organised in Tarnetar village in Surendranagar District in Gujarat.
• It is popularly known as the Trinetreshwar Mahadev Melaand revolves around the sacred temple of Trinetreshwar.
• It is held during the first week of Bhadrapad (Sep-Oct).
• This fair is primarilya a ‘marriage mart’ or ‘Swayamvar’ for the tribal youth who visit Tarnetar to find a suitable bride for themselves.

Correct Answer is B.

• Surajkund Mela is organised in Faridabad, Haryana during the first fortnight of each February.
• This fair is a celebration of Indian folk traditions and cultural heritage.
• The SurajKund Mela is unique as it showcases the richness and diversity of the handicrafts, handlooms and cultural fabric of India and is the largest crafts fair in the world.

Correct Answer is D.

• The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today
• It is a solar calendar based on a 365-day common year divided into 12 months of irregular lengths.
• 11 of months have either 30 or 31 days, while the second month, February, has only 28 days during the common year.
• Nearly every four years is a leap year, when one extra-or intercalary-day, is added on 29^th February, making the leap year in the Gregorian calendar 365 days long.
• The Gregorian calendar’s predecessor, the Julian calendar, was replaced because it was inaccurate. It did not properly reflect the actual time it takes earth to circle once around the Sun, known as a tropical year.

Correct Answer is A.

• The King Vikramaditya of Ujjan established the Vikrama Samvatera after defeating the Sakas.
• It uses lunar months and solar sidereal year.
• The Vikram samvat has two alternative systems, one in Nepal and the other in western and south India.
• It started in 56 BCE in southern (purnimanta) and 57-56 BCE in northern (amanta) systems of Hindu calendar.
• The Vikram samvat calendar is 56.7 years ahead (in count) of the solar Gregorian calendar. For example, the year 2076 Vikram Samvat began in 2019 CE and will end in 2020 CE.

Correct Answer is C.

• It was believed that King Kanishka established the Saka Calendar.
• There are two Saka era system in scholarly use, one is called Old Saka Era. The other is called Saka Era of 78 CE, or simply Saka Era, a system that is common in epigraphic evidence from southern India.
• The beginning of the Saka era is now widely equated to the ascension of King Chashtana in 78 CE. His inscriptions have been found at Andhau in Kutch region.
• The earliest known users of the era are the western Satraps, the Saka rulers of Ujjain (Indo-Scythian).
• From the reign of Rudrasimha I (178-197), they recorded the date of minting of their coins in the Saka era, usually written on the obverse behind the King’s head in Brahmi numerals.
• The calendar era remained in use in India and Southeast Asia throughout the medieval period, the main alternative era in traditional Hindu timekeeping being the Vikram Samvat era (56 BCE). It was adopted as the era of the Indian National calendar (also known as ‘Saka Calendar’) in 1957.