The festival of Lohri is celebrated every year on 13 January all over Punjab and some parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan. On this occasion, a bonfire is setup in the evening and later sweats & food items like rewari, peanuts, saag, desi ghee, and popcorn are offered by the family members.
The way to celebrated this festival is slightly different in different area but the purpose to celebrate the festival of Lohri is same and always celebrated 1 day before the makar sankranti festival which usually fall in the month of January on 14th in non-leap year and on 15th in leap year.
As the date of Lohri festival is fixed it will be celebrated on Jan 13.
How Festival of Lohri is Celebrated?
Lohri is popular festival in Punjab among Sikh and Hindu. So those who live in Punjab or belong from Punjab they celebrated it as the harvest festival and on this day people light bonfire, sing songs and dance to pay respect to the Dulha Batti.
The way to celebrated this festival is quite simple but on some special occasion like newly married couples (new bride first time celebrating lohri), or newly born baby celebration, it is celebrated in unique why.
It has been seen many people who recently married they celebrated Lohri festival on big scale with the family members, friends and close relatives. They invite all at home and decorate the home with flowers, balloons, lights + arrangement of food is also made so they can charge up everyone for the function.
Once everyone gets gathers, a bonfire is setup and later the freshly cooked food like sarson ka saag, kheer, gazar halwa, makki ki roti, and desi ghee are offered. Once the basic ritual is done, then all members come together and create circle around the fire and they all fill their hands with the til rewari, moongfali, gud, gazak, and popcorns.
Here now each and every starts moving around the bonfire and put a small amount of quantity of rewari, moongfali and popcorns in the fire. While moving around the fire, the members also chant a line “Ishar aaye, dalidar jaye, dalidar di jarh chulhe paye” and they keep it continue until the 5 or 7 rounds.
Later the family members, couples, friends come together and dance on the music. It is all done for couple of minutes or around 1 hour. One of the famous song of Lohri is:
Sunder mundriye ho!
Tera kaun vicharaa ho!
Dullah Bhatti walla ho!
Dullhe di dhee vyayae ho!
Ser shakkar payee ho!
Kudi da laal pathaka ho!
Kudi da saalu paata ho!
Salu kaun samete!
Chacha gali dese!
Chache choori kutti! zamidara lutti!
Zamindaar sudhaye!
Bum Bum bhole aaye!
Ek bhola reh gaya!
Sipahee far ke lai gaya!
Sipahee ne mari itt!
Paanvey ro te paanvey pitt!
Sanoo de de Lohri, te teri jeeve jodi!
(Laugh, cry or howl!)
Meanwhile, the elder share memories, and young ones click the lohri fest moments on their phone and share the experience on whatsapp, instagram or whatsapp with others.
As the function is arranged at the big scale, how could you forget the delicious food? The celebration ends with a hot dinner, and everyone wishes each other a “Happy Lohri.” It’s a day filled with joy, tradition, and delicious food.
