Lohri celebrations
Credit: PTI File Photo
Popular Punjabi festival Lohri is being celebrated today.
The festival has a huge cultural significance and is widely celebrated by Sikhs and Hindus from Punjab and the adjoining regions in Northern India. The Punjabi diaspora all over the world also partakes in the Lohri festivities.
There are multiple legends associated with the history of this festival. Here we discuss those legends and the significance of Lohri.
Date
Lohri is celebrated a day before the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti also called Maghi. Since, this year Sankranti is on January 15, Lohri's date fell on January 14. Usually, Lohri falls on January 13 or 14.
Significance
The festival is celebrated to mark the ripening of the winter crops which are sown in the preceding months. The crop harvesting season starts with this festival. Lohri also marks the end of winters and the beginning of longer days.
Celebrations
Lohri is celebrated by lighting bonfires and praying to God while making rounds around the fire. Sweets like gajak, til, gur are distributed, and in some places Punjab folk songs and dance is also involved.
In houses with newly weds or new parents, the celebrations attain extra fervour.
History
Lohri finds mention in accounts of an European traveler in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Author Roshana Lala Ahuja writes in his book, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a Man of Destiny that a traveler Captain Wade visited the Lahore durbar of the Sikh king Ranjit Singh on the occasion of Lohri in 1932.
The popular legend of Dulla Bhatti is also linked to the Lohri celebrations. Many songs related to this legend are widely sung by Punjabis on this occassion.
Dulla or Abdullah Bhatti is said to be a local hero who rescued Punjabi girls from being taken to be sold as slaves by the Mughal governors in the 16th century.