Lohri Celebrations

Pictures of Bonfires of Lohri Festival

In India, most of our festivals are as per the lunar calendar like Holi, Diwali among Hindus and Eid among Muslims.  But there are a few festivals in India that are celebrated as per the Solar calendar. I have share pictures of Sankranti or Pongal as it is called in South India some time back.  But Sankrant / Sankranthi / Pongal is celebrated in different parts of India and other places like Nepal and Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac sign of Makara Rashi (Capricorn) on its celestial path.  But I think Makar Sankranti is celebrated in other parts of the world also in one form or other as it is a harvest festival so wherever there is a harvest happening Makar Sankranti is celebrated by one name or other. In north India especially in Punjabi families the festival is celebrated an evening in advance and is called Lohri, now the purists and culture vulture types may say it is a different festival, so I will not argue with them. For me, Lohri too is a festival of harvest and celebrating the bounties of nature.

Some people may fly kites on Makar Sakranti, others make rangolis and while others like our brothers and sisters in Punjab light bonfires and dance around it but essentially they are all harvest festivals and in my opinion predates any kind of religion and are more of a celebration of transition of the human race from hunter-gatherer to farmer. Today it may sound like a mundane development but from a historical and anthropological development point, the transition of humans from hunter-gatherer to farmers was a giant leap. None of the ancient civilizations like Indus Valley Civilization,  Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Petra or Machu Pichu would have occurred if humans were still hunter-gatherers. Anyways let me not bore you with my global G. and share with you some of the pictures that I clicked this  Lohri singing and dancing around bonfire thanking the heavens and mother nature for all the bounties and good fortune and of course praying for world peace 🙂

By what name is Sakrant celebrated in your part of the world? How about sharing your pictures and tagging desi Traveler? You can tag me on twitter or Instagram and also comment here. Let us exchange our celebrations with the first festival of new year 🙂 Happy Lohri, Happy Sankranti, Happy Pongal, Happy Bihu 🙂

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