Gangaur festival celebrations light up rustic Bikaner during the Hindu month of chaitra that falls in the months of March-April.

Gangaur festival welcomes spring in Rajasthan and Bikaner is among the main centers of Gangaur festivities. The term Gangaur derives its origin from the words 'Gan' and 'Gauri'. Gan refers to Lord Shiva and Gauri is of course his consort and the Gangaur festivities signify marital bliss and happiness.

The festival is of great significance for the women of Bikaner. Most families in Bikaner get their "puja rooms" whitewashed for the Gangaur festival. Ladies place idols of Gauri and Isar in their puja rooms. The deities are decorated with bright costumes and ornaments. Offerings are made as women sing devotional songs.

Women and young girls sport traditional attires and ornaments, decorate their palms with henna patterns and perform rituals that they believe will bless their married lives with prosperity and happiness.

Bikaner vibrates with cultural fiestas during the Gangaur festival. A large procession begins from the Zenana Deori at the Junagarh Fort main gate and passes through significant places in the Bikaner city before it reaches Talkatora where women immerse the idols of Gauri and Isar in the lake.

Ladies and maidens fast during the Gangaur festival and prepare sweets with milk and carry them on their heads to the banks of any water body and worship the deity Gauri and come back home distributing the milk sweets en route as prasad.