lohri-thingstodo
Things to do on Lohri
Lohri is also the one day when the womenfolk and children get attention.
The first Lohri of a bride is extremely important. The first Lohri of a newborn
baby, whether a girl or a boy, is also equally important.
In the morning on Lohri day, children go from door to door singing and
demanding the Lohri 'loot' in the form of money and eatables like til
(sesame) seeds, peanuts, jaggery, or sweets like gajak, rewri, etc. The focus of
Lohri is on the bonfire. In the evening, with the setting of the sun, huge
bonfires are lit in the harvested fields and in the front yards of houses and
people gather around the rising flames, circle around (parikrama) the bonfire
and throw puffed rice, popcorn and other munchies into the fire, shouting
"Aadar aye dilather jaye" (May honour come and poverty vanish!), and sing
popular folk songs. This is a sort of prayer to Agni, the fire god, to bless the
land with abundance and prosperity.
After the parikrama, people meet friends and relatives, exchange greetings and
gifts, and distribute prasad (offerings made to god). The prasad comprises five
main items: til, gajak, jaggery, peanuts, and popcorn. Winter savouries are
served around the bonfire with the traditional dinner of makki-ki-roti
and sarson-ka-saag. Bhangra dance by men begins after the offering to the
bonfire. Dancing continues till late night with new groups joining in amid the
beat of drums. Traditionally, women do not join Bhangra. They hold a separate
bonfire in their courtyard orbiting it with the graceful gidda dance.
Lohri celebrates fertility and the joy of life, and in the event of the
birth of a male child or a marriage in the family, it assumes a larger
significance wherein the host family arranges for a feast and merry-making with
the traditional bhangra dance along with rhythm instruments, like the dhol and
the gidda.
Ceremonies that go with the festival of Lohri usually comprise making a small
image of the Lohri goddess with gobar (cattle dung), decorating it, kindling a
fire beneath it and chanting its praises. The final ceremony is to light a large
bonfire at sunset, toss sesame seeds, gur, sugar-candy and rewaris in it, sit
round it, sing, dance till the fire dies out. People take dying embers of the
fire to their homes. In Punjabi village homes, fire is kept going round the
clock by use of cowdung cakes
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