About Lohri

Lohri, is celebrated every year on 13th of January. It is a festival to worship fire. Lohri Festival is celebrated with great pomp in North India. At this time Earth starts moving towards the sun marking the auspicious period of Uttarayan. First Lohri is very important for the newly wed and the new born babies as it marks fertility. At night, people gather around the bonfire and throw til, puffed rice & popcorns into the flames of the bonfire. Prayers are offered to the bonfire seeking abundance & prosperity. People make merry by dancing & singing traditional folk songs.

An extremely auspicious day, Lohri marks the sun's entry in to the 'Makar Rashi' (northern hemisphere). The period, beginning from 14 January lasting till 14 July, is known as Uttarayan. It is also the last day of the month of Maargazhi, the ninth month of the lunar calendar.

The Bhagawad Gita deems it an extremely sacred and auspicious time, when Lord Krishna manifests himself most tangibly. And so, across India, people celebrate the month and the prodigious harvest it brings - Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Bihu in Assam, Bhogi in Andhra Pradesh and the Sankranti in Karnataka, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The day begins with children collecting money from houses in the neighbourhood. In the evening, winter savouries are served around a bonfire. Celebrated enthusiastically in Haryana, Punjab and parts of Himachal Pradesh, it also signifies the beginning of the end of winter.

Children go from door to door singing songs in praise of Dulha Bhatti, a Punjabi version of Robin Hood who robbed the rich and helped the poor. These "visitors" are given either money or gachak, bhuga, til, moongphali, gur and rewri. A bonfire is lit and everyone gathers around it. Munchies, collected from each house, go around the party and are also thrown into the fire.

The festival assumes greater significance if there has been a happy event in the family during the elapsed year, like the birth of a male child or marriage.

A puja is performed beside the bonfire and the "Prasad" comprises of six main things : til, gazak, gur, moongphali, phuliya and popcorn is distributed. Children from door to door sings and ask for the Lohri prasad. There is puja, involving parikrama around the fire.

After the parikrama, people meet friends and relatives, exchange greetings and gifts, and distribute prasad. The prasad comprises five main items: til, gajak, jaggery, peanuts, and popcorn. Winter savories are served around the bonfire with the traditional dinner of makki-ki-roti and sarson-ka-saag.

Lohri is celebrated throughout the country in different forms, as a harvest festival. It is called Pongal in the South, Bhugali Bihu in Assam, Bhogi in Andhra Pradesh and Sankranti in the central part of the country. Modes of celebrating Lohri are also different, but the message conveyed by the festival, that of setting aside differences and rejoicing by celebrating the end of the harvest season and the chilly winter, is the same.