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Lohri

Lohri is a festival connected with the solar year. Generally, it is an accepted fact that this festival is to worship fire. This is particularly a happy occasion for the couples who for the first time celebrated Lohri after th eir marriage and also the first Lohri of the son born in a family. Children visit homes in the neighbourhood and sing songs. One of the famous ones is :

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 popular belief in this region is that if someone seeks a radish roasted in the bonfire lit by a family that has reason to celebrate, then blessings are bestowed on the family of the seeker as well. Geographically speaking, the earth leans towards the sun along the Tropic of Capricorn (Makara rekha) from the day following Lohri, also known as Winter Solstice. The earth, farthest from the sun at this point of time, starts its journey towards the sun along its elliptical orbit, thus heralding in the onset of spring. It is this transition which is celebrated as Lohri in northern India , Makara sankranti in the central part of the country and as Pongal-Sankranti in South India.