Traditional New Year Festivals

• 14 Apr 2021

Why in News

The Vice President of India greeted the people on festivals ‘Chaitra Sukladi, Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, Cheti Chand, Vaisakhi, Vishu, Puthandu, and Bohag Bihu’.​

• These festivals of the spring season mark the beginning of the traditional new year in India.

Key Points

• 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 luni-solar 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 moon is getting bigger every night) of the moon in the Chaitra (first month of Hindu calendar).
• Gudi Padwa and Ugadi:
  
  • These festivals are celebrated by the people in the Deccan region including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
  • The common practice in the celebrations of both the 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 sorrows.
  • 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.
  • For Ugadi, doors in homes are adorned with mango leaf decorations called toranalu or Torana in Kannada.
• Cheti Chand:
  
  • Sindhis celebrate the new year as Cheti Chand. Chaitra month is called 'Chet' in Sindhi.
  • The day commemorates the birth anniversary of Uderolal/Jhulelal, the patron saint of Sindhis.
• Navreh:
  
  • It is the lunar new year that is celebrated in Kashmir.
    
    • It is the Sanskrit word ‘Nav-Varsha’ from where the word ‘Navreh’ has been derived.
  • It falls on the first day of the Chaitra Navratri.
  • On this day, Kashmiri pandits look at a bowl of rice which is considered as a symbol of riches and fertility.
• Vaishakhi:
  
  • It is also pronounced as Baisakhi, observed by Hindus and Sikhs.
  • It marks the beginning of Hindu Solar New year.
  • It commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.
  • Baisakhi was also the day when colonial British empire officials committed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at a gathering, an event influential to the Indian movement against colonial rule.
• Vishu:
  
  • It is a Hindu festival celebrated in the Indian state of Kerala, Tulu Nadu region in Karnataka, Mahé district of Union Territory of Pondicherry, neighbouring areas of Tamil Nadu and their diaspora communities.
  • The festival marks the first day of Medam, the ninth month in the solar calendar followed in Kerala.
  • It therefore always falls in the middle of April in the Gregorian calendar on 14^th or 15^th April every year.
• Puthandu:
  
  • Also known as Puthuvarudam or Tamil New Year, is the first day of the year on the Tamil calendar and traditionally celebrated as a festival.
  • The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, as the first day of the Tamil month Chithirai.
  • It therefore falls on or about 14^th April every year on the Gregorian calendar.
• Bohag Bihu:
  
  • Bohag Bihu or Rongali Bihu also called Xaat Bihu (seven Bihus) is a traditional aboriginal ethnic festival celebrated in the state of Assam and other parts of northeastern India by the indigenous ethnic groups of Assam.
  • It marks the beginning of the Assamese New Year.
  • It usually falls in the 2^nd week of April, historically signifying the time of harvest.

Source:PIB