The International Kite Festival is always held at Ahmedabad on January 14, to coincide with the festival of Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti. It is a joyous day, with a bright sun, clear skies and breezes strong enough to lift innumerable kites aloft. It is in fact a celebration to mark the end of winter, when the heat of summer is still to come. Kites are flown all over Gujarat, and Ahmedabad and Baroda become cities of kite-flyers, when all other work is forgotten and cares are put aside for the morrow.
Special food is eaten, usually in the open field or a park, or in the garden of one s home.
Even for the religious, it is a time to rejoice, for it marks the movement of the sun into the Northern Hemisphere. The temples are thronged with visitors and alms are distributed freely. Kite flying starts at dawn and continues without a pause throughout the day. Friends, neighbours and total strangers' battle one another for supremacy and cries of triumph rend the air when someone cuts the line of a rival. A tremendous variety of kites is seen and the connoisseur can choose precisely what he wants.