Lohri- A festival guide

As we have entered the new year of our life, let’s save the excitement for the arrival of festivals starting with Lohri. This popular Punjabi event comes right after the new year. Lohri is one of the most famous festivals of Punjab and Haryana and is celebrated in the entire north Indian region on 13th January.
It is celebrated with love and is observed to pay reverence to winter. It is a vibrant festival to welcome the harvest season for the people of Punjab. Lohri is celebrated to mark the beginning of the new farming season. It is celebrated a day before another festival that is known as Makar Sankranti. It is very popularly celebrated by Punjabi people to honour the harvest season which is also known as the golden harvest season.
Lohri is not only of significance for harvest but also is of the importance of fertility in Indian families and is considered a big festival for newlyweds and the mother of newly born infants.

How is Lohri celebrated?
It is celebrated by lighting a bonfire that honors Sun God and praying around him to get relief from winter. On the occasion of Lohri, families get together and arrange a bonfire and celebrate by singing folk songs and dancing around it. As per a popular ritual, people tend to throw popcorns, peanuts, sesame sweets, and puffed rice in the fire by reciting a prayer. After that, a holy Prasad consisting of sesame sweets, peanuts, jaggery sweets, popcorns, and puffed rice is distributed. With lots of love, people exchange greetings with loved ones. To show excitement and love, men also tend to perform bhangra whereas women perform giddha dances. A variety of folk songs are sung and danced upon and everyone enjoys it with lots of zeal. As a custom, the meal consists of some delicious saag and Makki ki roti with white homemade butter. To show love towards each other people also exchange gifts with family and friends. Gifts such as dry fruits, fruit baskets, jaggery sweets, and sagan are exchanged.

This particular ritual is extremely popular and draws a lot of attention as people get dressed in traditional wear for the kite flying ritual. Women look extremely pretty as they wear beautiful kurtas, lehengas, and vibrant dupattas while men, on the other hand, can be seen all dressed up in bright coloured kurtas, dhotis, and pagdis. It is said that kite flying is performed to bathe in the morning sun. and is considered a way of thanking the sun and nature to help in farming.

What we seek from Lohri?
Lohri is a high spirited festival and the celebration is observed by the entire family with lots of love. It is considered as a festival of the harvest to welcome the sun and get relief from winter. Lohri emphasizes spreading the love with families and friends. It is also a thanksgiving festival to show gratitude towards the sun for helping in farming and hope for warmth and get relief from the chilly winter.

Over to you:
So join people from across the country and the world as they gather to celebrate and dance around a circle of fire this winter and spread the love!