Besides the usual yearly festivals Nagpur City has its special public celebrations such as

1. Baccoka (children's) Pola,
2. Marbat, and
3. Maskharya Ganpati. On Bhadrapada vad 30.

Cowherds (Gavlis) and other agricultural communities worship at home their bullocks, give them rest and geed them with sweet dished, and in the evening decorating them take them out in a procession. In Nagpur, children make this Pola dayb an occasion for taking out at night a procession of decorated toy-bullocks to the temple of Sri-Krishna amidst lights and gala festivities, it being known as Children's Pola. The next day the townsfolk take out the Marbat procession, when paper effigies symbolizing vices and diseases are driven to a maidan amidst tomtomming and loud cheers, and then set fore to. Sometimes, this revelry becomes a big ralk of the town, as they say that under the guise of burning marbat effigies, people give vent to their feelings against persons they considered as public enemies.

After the usual Ganapati festival is over by the Anant-caturdasi day, it is customary, particularly in Nagpur, to set up with due decorum another idol of Ganapati known as Maskhara Ganpati, and make this an occasion for a change over to a programmed of purely social entertainment such as dancing, tamasa, singing of povadas and lavnis, etc. some may also give an exhibition of sher or tiger dance before the deity in fulfillment of a vow.

In the rural areas the villagers sometimes had rude dramatic representations of their own, especially of the conquest of Ravan the demon king, by Rama on Ramnavami day on the 9^th of Caitra. Burlesques were enacted at which European and Indian officials were caricatured. At;some places, dhandhar, a sort of combined dance and dramatic performed was held in the Divali festivals; the young men and boys, some of whom were dressed as girls, stood in two lines, holding sticks which they beat against each other as they danced, while in the centre two actors enacted some performance.

Folk Dances: Holidays and religious festivals are great occasions of social entertainment. Various types of dancing activities generally of the nature of folk-dance are current among the people, the occasion for them usually being the various religious festivals occurring mainly in the months of sravana, Bhadrapada and Phalgun. On the dark night of Sravana and the day following are celebrated the festivals of Gokulastai and Dahhhikala which are occasions for the display of the spectacular goph and tipri and the boisterous Kala and Govinda dances. In the month among Brahmans and other danced classes at the occasion of the Mangalagouri puja young women dance a variety of folk dance known phugadis. On the bright fourth of Bhadrapada and after, come the Ganes and Gauri festivals. In towns, at the public Ganapati celebrations are held mela performances, but in villages, the agricultural classes, enthusiastically observe the Bharadi Gauri festival with singing, dancing and merry-making. In the same month while the sun is in the thirteenth constellation of the zodiac called Hasta or the Elephant, girls unmarried or newly married give a typical semi-dance known as Hadga or Bhondla and sing specially composed Hadga or Bhulabai songs. Hole or Simga festival declaring the advent of the spring is spent in boisterous activities to include the performance of a Tamasa troupe.

Some dances are danced more out of religious ecstasy and fervor then to give expression to an aesthetic feeling. The dindi dance which devotees or bhajanis of the Varkari cult engage in while going or a temple of Vithoba or taking part in a religious procession belongs to this kind. Another dance of the ecstatic kind is the Mahalaksmi dance better known as ghagar phunkane perhaps exclusively practiced by women of the Sitapavan Brahman community at the time of Mahalaksmi worship in the bright half of Asvin.

Gond Dancing: Dancing and singing to the dance constituted the social amusement and recreation of the Gonds who were known to passionately fond of it. The principal dance was the Karma dance in celebration of the brining of the leafy branch of a tree from the forest in the rains. Men and women formed tow long lines opposite each other, with the musicians in the centre, and advanced and retreated alternately, bringing one foot forward and the other up behind it, with a similar movement in retiring. At a mixed dance, all the time they were dancing, they also sang in unison, the men sometimes singing one line and the women the next or both together. The songs were with a few exceptions of an erotic character.

Folk Songs: In the rural area there would arise a number of occasions for the cultivating classes to entertain themselves with folk-song to be sung individually or in a group. Of these, lavani and povada songs, replete as they were with humour and common sense formed a popular source of entertainment of the village-folks. There were professional exponents of the art and a contest between male lavani singers arranged at a jatra(fair) though would attract many, it was the lavani of the female dance-cum-singer at a Tamasa that really delighted the audience. Folk -songs known as bhaleri were sometimes sung to encourage reapers working in the field, but at the harvesting time farmers sang special songs to enthuse, as it were the bullocks treading corn. In the repertory of folk-songs of the villager may be included songs set in ovi metre which are often sung by women early morning while grinding corn: auspicious songs such as sung by suvasinis at the halad and ghana ceremonies in a marriage: palane or lullabies and cradle-songs which are soothing songs sung to put a child to sleep: propiriatory songs sung to appease the wrath of deities like smallpox, plague, etc. Artya or songs in praise of gods and goddesses: and ukhane which are riddles set in rhymes and also ditties composed for the is of woman to utter her husband's name in an involved way.

Bhajan, Bharud, gondhal, Kirtan, Lalita, Tumbadi singing and Tamasa are the other forms of community entertainment's based on folk-songs found current in the district. Of these, Bhajan-singing, which aims at a religious communion to be achieved by chanting devotional songs on chorus, is widely popular. Occasionally, Bhajan-saptahas or non-stop sessions of bhajan-singing for seven days, are held in celebrated temples. In Bharuds is delineated in songs, delightfully spiced with homour, the traditional topic of spiritual uplift of man. Gandhal is a semi-musical performance given by a professional Ghondhali and his troupe in praise of gods and goddesses such as Malhari, bhavani, ram and other legendary heroes. A kirtan is a musical discourse given by a kirtankar in which God and religion are described and expounded in poetry and prose. A tendency is seen now-a-days to use kirtan institutin as a vehicle for spreading cultural and social ideas insteda of purely religious ones. Lalita as the probable precursor of Marathi drama, is a form of crude theatrical which has for its plot an incident from the puranas. Tumbadis are musical satires on social problems. Tamasha which is perhaps the most popular and alluring recreational activity in the rural areas consists of a bari of five to seven artistes of histrionic talent and musical skill. The nachya (dancer) in an amateur tamasha troupe is generally a boy dressed as a girl : in a professional tamasha a female dance and singer is the centre of attraction. Gana, gavalan and vag are the principal components of a tamasha, and the ruling sentiment maintained throughout by means of dialogues and lavanis is usually crude and sensuous humour leaning to the erotic.