The people celebrate these festivals with great enthusiasm, donning traditional dresses or dressing themselves up in costumes and masks.

Different valleys -- like those of the Chandra, Bhaga and Chenab -- have different festivals and fairs, though some are celebrated over the entire region.

Bumkhor
This is a religious festival connected with agricultural activities. There is a belief that if religious books are taken around the fields, a good harvest will follow. Thus, the farmers carry religious books around their fields with lamas leading the way and chanting religious scriptures.

After the ceremonies are over, the group assembles in the village, where prayers are chanted. They are also served with food and chhang (locally brewed barley beer).

Halda or Losar
Halda is a popular festival of Lahaul heralding the new year. It is celebrated sometime in the month of January or February, the exact date being decided by the lamas. Halda perhaps has the same significance for the people of Lahaul as Diwali has for the Hindu population of the rest of India. Shiskar Apa, the goddess of wealth in the lamaistic pantheon, is worshipped during this festival just as Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, is worshipped during Diwali. Apa is referred to as grandmother.

Like the Hindu festival of Diwali, Halda is a festival of lights. Although homes are not illuminated, 2 or 3 persons from every home come out holding burning sticks of pencil cedar in their hands. They collect at a predetermined time and place fixed by the lamas. The burning sticks are piled into a bonfire and later thrown in the direction of Goshal and Khardung villages.

Drinking, eating and dancing follows, continuing well into the early hours of the morning.