LAHORE: The Punjab government has announced a public holiday in Lahore on April 12, 2025 (Saturday) for the annual Urs of Hazrat Shah Hussain (Mela Chiraghan).
A notification from the Punjab Services and General Administration Department (Welfare Wing) stated that April 12, 2025, will be a public holiday in Lahore district due to the Urs, commonly called Mela Chiraghan.
The notification clarified that the holiday applies only to Lahore district and its local offices. It will not affect the Punjab Civil Secretariat, attached departments, or regional offices.
Public Holiday Official Notification in Lahore for Urs on 12 April 2025:
As per the Punjab government’s official notification, a public holiday has been declared in Lahore city due to Hazrat Shah Hussain’s Urs. All schools and colleges will remain closed on this day.
About Mela Chiraghan:
According to private media reports, Lahore has long been a center of cultural activities. Some festivals and fairs held here have been celebrated for hundreds of years, and Mela Chiraghan is one of them.
Details about when and why this fair began are unclear. However, evidence suggests it was celebrated even during the Sikh era in undivided India. Raja Ranjit Singh would attend the fair with his courtiers and offer 1,100 rupees and a pair of yellow sheets at Shah Hussain’s shrine in Baghbanpura.
ALSO READ | US ends global undergraduate exchange program for Pakistani students after 15 years
The fair was held to celebrate the arrival of spring. Before the partition of India, it stretched from Delhi Gate to Shalimar Bagh, with many visitors lighting lamps and making prayers at Shah Hussain’s shrine. This is how it got the name Mela Chiraghan, meaning “Festival of Lamps.”
Historically, Shah Hussain’s Urs took place on the first of Rajab. Once, the Urs and the fair happened at the same time, and since then, it was decided they would always be held together, usually in the last week of March.
