Wise Men's Camels

A couple years ago my company did an event where you were asked to send in pictures you've taken yourself. They had those pictures rotating on our intranet main page. When I saw this one of all these camels I just had to ask the photographer about it. Was it a parking lot for camels? I could not imagine what or why there would be so many camels in one place. He replied that he'd been on vacation in India to witness a camel fair. He sent me a couple others as well. I've posted the two below. I went online and this is what it says:

"An astonishing 50,000 camels converge on the tiny desert town of Pushkar, in India's state of Rajasthan, for the Pushkar Camel Fair. It's a fascinating and peculiar sight, and a great opportunity to witness an old traditional style Indian festival.

The original intention behind the Pushkar Camel Fair was to attract local camel and cattle traders to do business during the holy Kartik Purnima festival, held in Pushkar around the full moon in the Hindu lunar month of Kartika. The fair has now also become a major tourist attraction.

For five days, the camels are dressed up, paraded, shaved, entered into beauty contests, raced, and traded. A huge carnival is held, with an array of musicians, magicians, dancers, acrobats, snake charmers and carousel rides to entertain the crowd.

The sand dunes appear infested with camels as far as the eyes can see and the population of Pushkar swells to over 200,000 people, with an inflow of pilgrims, camel traders, and tourists. It's a fascinating and peculiar sight, and a great opportunity to witness an old traditional style Indian festival. The highlight is definitely the camel races, although the comical beauty contests featuring elaborately adorned and shaved camels are also amusing."







Have you ever seen so many camels at one time???? Amazing. I just wanted to share this since I know most Americans have no idea that this event even exists, and since the camel was the transportation tool used by the 3 Wise Men to visit baby Jesus on Christmas Day so it really is an appropriate topic. :0)

See, you learned something today!!!