Saturday, February 15, 2014

Lohri Festival Marks the Harvest Festival of Punjabis

Lohri which is the most celebrated festival of Punjab and Haryana region is feted on the month of January during the month of Paush or Magh, a day before Makar Sankranti.

This festival is connected with Solar year and marks farewell of winter season. As before it used to be prime festival for Punjabis only but now with its growing popularity it is celebrated throughout the country as harvest festival.

People calls this festival with various names and some examples are Pongal- in Tamil Nadu,Bihu and Assam, Bhogi in Andhra Pradesh and the Sankranti in Karnataka, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

For Punjabi people this festival is most important as it regards a time of merry making after the process of harvesting. Beside that they celebrate this festival in order to show the colors and their culture.
After the completion of cutting and gathering of the grains and other food crops, they all gather at one place and start to celebrate the festival by singing folk dance and perform their local traditional dance, which they call Bhangra.

History of Lohri
History 0f Lohri is marked with an equatorial phenomenon because it is on this day we witness farewell of chilly winter and arrival of spring and at a same time it s marked with the longest night and after Lohri, the days become longer and the nights shorter.

It is celebrated to commemorate Dulha Batti, who was a Muslim robber and lived during an era of Akbar. It is believed that he was a hero amongst Punjabis. As he used to steal wealth from rich people and distribute it among the poor.

Beside that he rescued girl who were being taken away brutally. He used to arrange marriages of young girls and paid the dowries. So to remember and to respect his deeds Lohri is being celebrated.It is also celebrated to worship sun God, Water and Fire.

When It Is Celebrated
It is feted on the month of January during the month of Paush or Magh, a day before Makar Sankranti.

How It Is Celebrated
Like other festival, family gathers in, they exchange sweets, shares gestures. As it is mainly an agricultural festival and people celebrates it after they are done with harvest process.
On this day people lights bon fire and dance around it. People throw rewaries, sugar-candy, popcorn, sesame seeds, gur, etc into the fire and sing and dance around it.
On this day people wears traditional colourful dresses and celebrates it throughout the night.

Main Attraction
As it is a festival of lights and colors, so we can witness vivid culture of Punjabis as they wear their traditional attire and lights bonfire and around it they perform folk songs and dance Bhangra on the beads of Gidda.

Where It Is Celebrated
Lohri is celebrated every year on 13th of January and on this day people of Punjab worship Sun God, Water and Fire. It is mainly celebrated in Punjab but this festival is also celebrated in other regions of India like Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
As festival is privately celebrated within their own sphere, where all the family members gathers in exchange sweets and lights bonfire and enjoys night singing traditional folk songs and performs Bhangra.
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