Sindhi Cultural Day (Ekta Day)
Sindhis celebrate Sindh Cultural day world wide every year during the month of December by wearing Ajrak & Sindhi Topi on that occasion. The musical programmes and rallies are held in many cities to mark the day with zeal.Major hallmarks of cities and towns are decorated with Sindhi Ajrak to highlight the cultural values of Sindh. The people across Sindh exchange gifts of Ajrak and Topi at various ceremonies.Even, the children and women are dressed up in Ajrak, assembling at the grand gathering, where famous Sindhi singers sing Sindhi songs, which depicts love and progress of Sindh. The musical performances of the artists compel the participants to dance on Sindhi tunes and ‘Jeay Sindh Jeay-Sindh Wara Jean’.
All Political, social and religious organisations of Sindh, besides the Sindh culture department and administrations of various schools, colleges and universities, organize variety of events including seminars, debates, folk music programmes, drama and theatrics performances, tableau and literary sittings to mark this annual festivity. Sindhi culture, history and heritage are highlighted at the events.
Ekta (Unity) day is observed to display solidarity among the Sindhi-speaking masses, the event is celebrated not only in Karachi, but throughout Sindh. The province’s culture and unity day was celebrated for the first time on December 6, 2009 (as the Sindhi Topi Day) as a backlash to the comments of anchorman Dr Shahid Masood who had criticised President Asif Ali Zardari for wearing a Sindhi cap on his foreign tours. People across the Sindh province condemned Masood’s comments via SMS, which ultimately resulted in the announcement of celebrating the Sindhi Topi Day. Moreover, the KTN Group had started issuing a call for observing a unity day, and a large number of people responded to the call and started celebrating the culture and the unity days.Ever since, Sindhi media groups have started to celebrate the day as ‘Sindhi Cultural Day’ or 'Ekta day'.The Sindhi language TV channels including KTN, Sindh TV, Awaz TV and Mehran TV broadcast special programmes on the culture of Sindh, besides these media outlets separately arrange the mega musical events, which also attract large audience to celebrate the Culture Day every year.
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