Pakistanis Fly Kites to Celebrate Boisterous Spring Rite

Defying a chilly night, a bitter drizzle and the reprimands of the mullahs, Pakistanis broke loose this weekend in a boisterous annual rite of spring: Grown men lost sight of everything but chasing kites in the sky, children stayed up until dawn, women reveled on roofs, dressed in the color of mustard blossoms. Even the birds seemed to forgo their ordinary routines, standing aside as hundreds of thousands of kites – white, pink, purple, polka-dotted, and most improbably, a replica of the American flag – soared and dipped over Lahore. On roofs in the old city and in the farmhouses of the rich, parties went on night and day.