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Joshi or Chilimjusht (14th and 15th May):
This festival is held in spring, when girls pick first flowers of the year. The days are marked by dancing, visiting each other and exchanging flowers, milk and milk products.
[/LEFT] [LEFT]Utchal (Mid July): It is celebrated to mark the harvest of wheat and barley. The celebration lasts for two days, which includes dancing, singing, and feasting.
[/LEFT] [LEFT]Phool (20th to 21st December): The festival is to mark the reaping of grapes and walnuts harvests. (Subject to weather conditions).
[/LEFT] [LEFT]Chowas (18th to 21st December): Chowas is a winter festival celebrated to welcome the New Year. The entire population remains indoor. It is celebrated by feasting, drinking and merry making until the elders, who sit on hill top watching the sun reaching the orbit, then declare the advent of the new year. They come down from the hills, light their torches, perform their dance and sacrifice goats at the altar.
[/LEFT] [LEFT]Boroghil Festival
[/LEFT] [LEFT]The Boroghil festival is held from July 15 to 17 at the famous Boroghil plateau at the summer settlement of Shuwor Sheer. The level grassy Shuwor Sheer is situated at the junction of the Chianter glacier, the Zindikharam pass to Darkot and Yasin, the Kurambar pass down into Iskhumnan and the Darwaza pass into the Wakhan corridor.
[/LEFT] The salient feature of this festival are various events like wild mountain polo, horse race on the wide pastures, Yak Polo and Yak race the only event of its kind in the world, Buz Kashi, and traditional music in the evenings. The Wakhi Sirikuli, Tajik and Kirghiz tribes who are scattered over the Boroghil in Pakistan and Wakhan corridor in Afghanistan find this festival a wonderful opportunity to exchange pleasantries. It is an occasion where families meet, news shared and marriages formalized. The area offers the pristine turquoise Kurambar Lake at 4620m a stopover for migratory birds from Russia and Central Asia
