Lal Shahbaz Qalandar - Urs

Lal Shahbaz' annual Urs (death anniversary celebration) is held on the 18 Sha'aban – the eighth month of the Muslim lunar calendar. Sehwan springs to life and becomes the focal point of more than half a million pilgrims from all over Pakistan. On each morning of the three-day feast the narrow lanes of Sewhan are packed to capacity as pilgrims, fakirs and devotees make their way to the shrine to commune with the saint, offer tributes and make a wish. Most of the people present garlands and a green chadar with Qur'anic inscriptions in silver or gold threads, humming verses, singing and dancing in praise of the saint till late at night. The devotional dance known as ‘dhamal’, an ecstatic swirl of the head and body, is performed to the rhythm of the dhol, a big barrel-shaped drum, some of giant size and placed in the courtyard of the shrine. Bells, gongs, cymbals and horns make a thunderous din, and the dervishes in robes, beads, bracelets and colored head-bands whirl faster and faster until, with a final deafening shout, they run out into the courtyard.