News Highlights:
- The Vice President greeted fellow citizens on the eve of Ugadi, Gudi Padava, Chaitra Sukladi, Cheti Chand, Navreh and Sajibu Cheiraoba.
- These festivals mark the beginning of our traditional New Year and usher in the same with a spirit of joy and togetherness across the country.
- These festivals, unique in form but one in essence, are yet another testament to the richness of our composite culture.
Traditional New Year Festivals:
- Ugadi:
- The people in the Deccan region, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, celebrate these festivals.
- The common practice in the celebrations of festivals is the festive food that is prepared with a mix of sweet and bitter.
- A famous concoction served is jaggery (sweet) and neem (bitter), called bevu-bella in the South, signifying that life brings both happiness and sorrow.
- For Ugadi, doors in homes are adorned with mango leaf decorations called toranalu or Torana in Kannada.
- Gudi Padava:
- Gudi Padwa, which falls in the Chaitra month of the Hindu calendar, is celebrated in the state of Maharashtra by hanging Gudi on the right side of the entrance of their house.
- Gudi is a doll prepared in Maharashtrian homes.
- A bamboo stick is adorned with green or red brocade to make the gudi. This gudi is placed prominently in the house or outside a window/ door for all to see.
- Chaitra Sukladi:
- It marks the beginning of the new year of the Vikram Samvat, also known as the Vedic (Hindu) calendar.
- Vikram Samvat is based on the day when the emperor Vikramaditya defeated Sakas, invaded Ujjain and called for a new era.
- Under his supervision, astronomers formed a new calendar based on the lunisolar system that is still followed in the northern regions of India.
- It is the first day during the waxing phase (in which the visible side of the moon gets bigger every night) of the moon in Chaitra (the first month of the Hindu calendar).
- Cheti Chand:
- Chetri Chandra is a festival that marks the beginning of the Lunar Hindu New Year for Sindhi Hindus.
- The date of the festival is based on the lunar cycle of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, falling on the first day of the year in the Sindhi month of Chet (Chaitra).
- The day commemorates the birth anniversary of Sindhis’ patron saint, Uderolal/Jhulelal.
- Navreh:
- Navreh or Kashmiri New Year is the celebration of the first day of the Kashmiri new year by Kashmiri Hindus, with the largest Kashmiri Hindu community being the Kashmiri Pandits.
- Kashmiri Pandits dedicate the Navreh festival to their Goddess Sharika and pay homage to her during the festival.
- It takes place on the first day of the bright half (Shukla Paksha) in the month of Chaitra (March–April) of the Kashmiri Hindu calendar.
- Sajibu Cheiraoba:
- Sajibu Nongma Panba, also called Meetei Cheiraoba or Sajibu Cheiraoba, is the lunar new year festival of the people who follow the religion of Sanamahism in the Indian state of Manipur.
- On the festival day, people organise a joint family feast in which traditional cuisines are served to local deities at the houses‘ entrance gates.
Pic Courtesy: Freepik
Content Source: PIB