Hindu New Year celebrations by region
Celebrating the New Year in India can vary depending on where you are. The celebrations can have different names, the activities can vary and the day can also be celebrated on another day.
Although the Indian national calendar is the official calendar for Hindus, regional variations still prevail. As a result, there are a number of new year celebrations that are unique to various regions of the vast country.
Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
If you are in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, you will hear the story of Lord Brahma who started the creation of the universe on Ugadi. People prepare for the new year by cleaning the house and buying new clothes. On Ugadi day, they decorate their home with mango leaves and rangoli designs, pray for a prosperous new year and visit temples to listen to the annual calendar, the Panchangasravanam, while priests make predictions for the coming year. Ugadi is a good day to start a new business.
Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and Goa
In Maharashtra and Goa, the new year is celebrated as Gudi Padwa, a festival that announces the advent of spring (March or April). Early in the morning of the first day of the month of Chaitra, water symbolically cleanses people and houses. People wear new clothes and decorate their homes with colorful rangoli motifs. A silk banner is raised and adored while greetings and sweets are exchanged. People hang a gudi on the windows, a pole decorated with a brass or silver vase placed on it, to celebrate Mother Nature's generosity.
Sindhis celebrates Cheti Chand
For New Years Day, Sindhis celebrates Cheti Chand, which is similar to an American Thanksgiving. In addition, Cheti Chand falls on the first day of the month of Chaitra, also called Cheti in Sindhi. This day is viewed as the birthday of Jhulelal, the patron saint of the Sinde. On this day, Sindhis worships Varuna, the god of water and observes a series of rituals followed by parties and devotional music such as bhajan and aartis.
Baisakhi, the Punjabi New Year
Baisakhi, traditionally a harvest festival, is celebrated on April 13 or 14 of each year, on the occasion of Punjabi's New Year. To play in the new year, the people of Punjab celebrate the joyous occasion by performing the bhangra and giddha dances at the pounding rhythm of the dhol drum. Historically, Baisakhi also marks the foundation of the Sikh Khalsa warriors by Guru Govind Singh in the late XNUMXth century.
Poila Baishakh in Bengal
The first day of the Bengali New Year falls between 13 and 15 April each year. The special day is called Poila Baishakh. It is a state holiday in the eastern state of West Bengal and a national holiday in Bangladesh.
The "new year", called Naba Barsha, is the time when people clean and decorate their homes and invoke the Goddess Lakshmi, the guardian of wealth and prosperity. All new businesses start on this auspicious day, while businessmen open their new registers with Haal Khata, a ceremony where Lord Ganesha is summoned and customers are invited to fix all their old shares and offer free refreshments . The Bengali people spend the day celebrating and participating in cultural activities.
Bohaag Bihu or Rongali Buhu in Assam
The northeastern state of Assam opens the new year with the spring festival of Bohaag Bihu or Rongali Bihu, which marks the beginning of a new agricultural cycle. Fairs are organized where people have fun in fun games. The celebrations last for days, offering young people a good time to find a mate of their choice. The young bells in traditional clothes sing the Bihu geet (New Year's songs) and dance the traditional Bihu mukoli. The festive food of the occasion is pitha or rice cakes. People visit other people's homes, wish each other in the new year and exchange gifts and sweets.
Vishu in Kerala
Vishu is the first day of the first month of Medam in Kerala, a picturesque coastal state in southern India. The people of this state, the Malayalees, start the day early in the morning by visiting the temple and looking for an auspicious sight called Vishukani.
The day is full of elaborate traditional rituals with tokens called vishukaineetam, usually in the form of coins, distributed among the needy. People wear new clothes, kodi vastram, and celebrate the day by bursting firecrackers and enjoying a variety of delicacies at an elaborate lunch called sadya with family and friends. The afternoon and evening are spent in Vishuvela or in a festival.
Varsha Pirappu or Puthandu Vazthuka, the Tamil New Year
Tamil-speaking people around the world celebrate Varsha Pirappu or Puthandu Vazthukal, the Tamil New Year, in mid-April. It is the first day of Chithirai, which is the first month of the traditional Tamil calendar. The day arises by observing the kanni or observing propitious things, such as gold, silver, jewelry, new clothes, new calendar, mirror, rice, coconuts, fruit, vegetables, betel leaves and other fresh agricultural products. This ritual is believed to usher in good luck.
The morning includes a ritual bath and almanac worship called panchanga puja. The Tamil "Panchangam", a book on New Year's forecasts, is anointed with sandalwood and turmeric paste, flowers and vermilion powder and is placed before the divinity. Subsequently, it is read or listened to at home or in the temple.
On the eve of Puthandu, each house is carefully cleaned and tastefully decorated. The doors are garlanded with mango leaves put together and vilakku kolam decorative motifs adorn the floors. Wearing new clothes, family members gather and light a traditional lamp, the kuthu vilakku, and fill the niraikudum, a short-necked brass bowl with water, and embellish it with mango leaves while singing prayers. People end the day by visiting nearby temples to offer prayers to the deity. The traditional Puthandu meal consists of pachadi, a mixture of jaggery, chillies, salt, neem and tamarind leaves or flowers, as well as a mixture of green banana and jackfruit and a variety of sweet payasams (desserts).