LAHORE: Weather plays an indispensable role in motivating and putting one’s mood in a positive direction. Spring is that time of the year in which our ecosystem and atmosphere goes through a massive weather transition.

During this season, the celebratory festival known as Jashn-e-Baharan is held at Jilani Park every year. This spring festival involves the arrangement of plants and flowers displayed in an attractive fashion.

Lahore’s residents are famous for celebrating every unique occasion, event and festival. The arrival of spring itself means festival season for the Walled City. To celebrate this short-lived pleasant season, the citizens wear colourful clothes, eat healthy and delicious food and go out for amusement with their families to spend quality time in the fresh air which is rich with the fragrance of blooming flowers.

The balanced temperature aspect of this season makes it particularly popular among the public. Jilani Park, a wonderful garden, is home to almost 8,000 plants and flowers along with 200 trees. Out of these plants, nearly 200 are rare trees that are expensive and imported.

The fragrance of spring is in the air all around Lahore; the fresh air along with a variety of colourful blooming flowers making the experience more pleasant. The festival is held in late February and continues till the end of March. Everyone and anyone can come and enjoy the beautiful display of vibrant flowers of all kinds. This annual festival is the highlight of spring in Lahore. Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar officially inaugurated the proceedings.

The park is decorated with colours and bright lights while the park is buzzing and crowded with families, friends and children.

The stalls installed in this festival are offering a large range of traditional items and products such as handicrafts, clothing, books, jewellery, footwear, shawls and delicious food items from different parts and cultures of Pakistan.

Families and friends are very happy to see all this diversity in one place and they are very happy to buy items at affordable prices.

There are many amusement activities for children as well like horse and camel riding along with regular swings. Moreover, there is a giant ship, trampolines for children of all ages as well as a balloon shooting activity for the minors.

Every weekend, renowned stage artists come to perform in the park and there are also musical performances being held.

Bol News spoke to different visitors and families about their experience regarding this festival. They say they were pleased to participate in such a healthy and productive activity. They were of the opinion that this type of festival provides a good opportunity to get exposure to different cultures and they see it as a great occasion to promote local businesses.

Rida Fatima, who is a regular visitor to this park, was pretty much satisfied with the quality of the arrangements and facilities being offered at the festival. “This is a good platform for women empowerment. Women can display their art skills and can promote their business as well to become self-sufficient.”

Syed Yasir Gillani, chairperson of the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), shed light on the execution plan for this year’s spring festival.

“For the past two years due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we weren’t able to celebrate [Jashn-e-Baharan] with traditional excitement, basically according to the expectations and standards of celebration of Lahore’s people. This is the next big event in the city after the Pakistan Super League matches,” he said.

“We are planning to set this festival in motion in three major segments. In our first segment, we are making arrangements to keep this festival going with the same spectacular manner till the end of March. Second segment is about the road decorations and promotion to attract more people to the annual festival. The third segment includes execution and implementation of several events that will continue to entertain people till the last day of the festival,” he added.

Cultural representation

Gillani also said that the PHA is focusing and emphasising on making sure to grant equal cultural representation to all provinces during the course of this festival. “Because during this festival people from different walks of life especially from rural areas come to visit with their family members, we are making sure to include all cultural representation from across Pakistan.”

This will help a lot to educate them about different aspects such as norms, values, customs, fashion and traditional background of different areas of Pakistan. “This is a great initiative where people get to interact and learn about different cultures and values. This festival is also a great occasion for parents to teach and educate their children about the past and forgotten lifestyles.”

For this purpose, they are also managing different varieties of traditional handicrafts, food dishes, clothing, footwear and different specialties from all over Pakistan, the PHA chairperson said. “This will help a lot in educating our new generation about … the past.

“There are dozens of events and activities that are going to take place such as calligraphy, mural painting, poetry and this time we have included a new venture known as Kabadi Tarka. Other than these, this year we are also introducing a hot air balloon ride as well,” he informed.  Apart from these recreational and artistic activities, the organisers are conducting a cycle ride from Bagh-e-Jinnah to Jillani Park along with a vintage car rally extending from Gulberg to Jillani Park. “There is a flower exhibition as well starting from March 23 till the end of the festival and we have also planned to conduct a laser light show at Minar-e-Pakistan.”