Celebrating Uttarayan Minnesota style

The holiday of Uttaryan is celebrated in Gujarat, especially in Ahmedabad on Jan. 14.
Uttarayan is a festival of kites where folks go up to their roofs (agassi) to fly their beautiful paper kites.
the strings are prepared with rice flour and ground glass. And kite flyers try to cut down other kites. I have not seen the holiday as an adult but hope to go with the kiddos one day soon.

MN has its own winter festivities. And the kite festival happens to fall in mid-January. Perhaps it was started by someone who has been to Gujarat. Let's see if you can guess which picture is of MN and which ones are from India...

So K and I went to the kite festival at Lake Harriet today. It was pleasant when we left ~about 35 degrees. The arctic weather was scheduled to arrive in the evening. K and i rode in a horse drawn carriage part way around the lake which she enjoyed immensely. There were two horses -- Percheron quarterhorses names Clarissa and Cathy. After we finished our ride, we wanted to try the ice fishing sponsored by the DNR. But as we approached the tent on the lake. An announcement was made that the ice fishing was closing because the wind was picking up. What wind is good for flying kites is not so good for freestanding tents.  Soon after there was a second announcement stating that folks should not stand east of the ice fishing tent. And sure enough the tent started blowing across the lakes like a large red and white striped box kite. By the time that K and I finished flying her kite, the tent had blown across the lake. K and I got our kite string attached to our kite and took it for a spin. Unfortunately, our kite was not designed for strong wind and get diving down. We managed not to hit anyone and keep it control as it dozens of figure eights and loop-de-loops. At this point we were quite cold as we had not brought our boots our snow pants. Also the front came in early and not only did the wind pick up, but the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. So we walked back off the lake to the grandstand area for hot chocolate and marshmallow roasting. K and I had a lovely time. And i have promised to take her kite flying again with a better kite. I also told her that the expert Nana might have to take the kite for a spin with her...