Chand Raat- A night to celebrate

We as Pakistanis try to find happiness in little things. Festivals like basant have been banned in Pakistan, actually Lahore only, (where it was celebrated with the most zeal), which leaves us with only two Eids to celebrate. So we want to celebrate everything about the festivals, whether it is chand raat or bakra shopping!

Celebrating Chand Raat has been a tradition from the time I can remember. Even when we were kids, our dad used to take us for mehndi, bangles and for buying accessories for Eid (which we used to purposely leave for the last moment). We loved going out on chand raat even if we had to get stuck in traffic for hours, sometimes even get harassed by boys who were there solely for that reason- basically there was nothing that could stop us from going out.

After we grew up, going out on chand raat became a struggle because we could never decide a place! There were many chaand raats that we spent at home because we couldn’t deal with the traffic. But last year, both of us decided to go somewhere near our place and realised that it was still a lot of fun getting henna/mehndi and buying bangles. It reminded us of our childhood and made us realise how we had stopped enjoying the little things in life.

 

Chand raat 2017

So this time around, to make it easy for you to decide we’ve made a compilation of all the places that we can think of for chaand raat in Lahore. Some of the places where you can enjoy Chand raat are:

• Emporium Mall– they have a separate area dedicated to mehndi application and other eid related things. It’s on even now, so if you fancy it visit them tonight!
• Packages Mall – Packages mall is also
• Xinhua Mall/ Galleria Mall – Not sure if there is a celebration going on, but common sense makes me believe there must be some sort of festivity.
• Defence Y Block- The gol market is full of henna and bangle stalls and stands. We’ve been there many times and love it always.
• Liberty market- Liberty market has been a favourite for chand raat festivities since ages. The only down side is that it is not organized well enough and is way too crowded.
• Main Market, Gulberg – The crowded market is also home to chand raat festivities and if it is close to your home, then it’s a good option
• PIA/Wapda Town market – The market has a limited chand raat gathering but it serves the purpose if you want to get mehndi and bangles
• G1 Market, Johar Town – Similar to the wapda town market, Johar Town G1 market also has some mehndi and bangle stalls.
• Moon Market- Allama Iqbal Town- I’ve never visited it but because of the size of the market and the surrounding locality I believe there would be a chand raat celebration.

Although most of the bazaars in Lahore have some sort of celebration going on, this year there is an addition of Malls. We personally think it is not a bad option as you can enjoy the Chand raat without having to bear the heat and humidity. The temperature is quite bad in Lahore currently and we think it would be a good idea to go to one of these malls, get mehndi, shop and eat. Actually, we are also thinking of going to one of the malls. So see you there if you’re there!