Assam, Punjab and Tamil Nadu herald the advent of harvest season and new year with traditional revelry.
Month-long celebrations
Assam’s most important and popular festival Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu which heralds the Assamese new year began here on Friday amidst traditional revelry and gaiety.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi danced to the beats of traditional musical instruments as the state celebrated Rongali Bihu with traditional fervour on Friday.
At a Bihu celebration in Guwahati, Gogoi, his wife Doly and son Gaurav danced to the beats of dhol (drum), pepa (pipe instrument made of buffalo horn), gogona (harp made of bamboo), cymbals etc.
“It’s heartening to see people celebrating the festivity with pomp and gaiety. However, Bihu also increases our responsibility since it is directly linked to our economy,” the chief minister told journalists.
The first day of the month-long Rongali Bihu is called Goru Bihu.
The day is dedicated to cow that is inherently linked to Assam’s agrarian economy and rural life.
Wheat harvesting begins
Sikh devotees on Friday thronged Gurdwaras across Punjab and took a dip in the holy water pools at religious shrines on the auspicious occasion of Baisakhi.
The devotees offered prayers at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the Gurdwaras in Muktsar, Talwandi Sabo and Anandpur Sahib. Community kitchens were also organised on the occasion.
Sikhs celebrate Baisakhi as the day of the formation of the Khalsa (the pure one). On the day, in 1699, Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Sikh Guru) established the Khalsa and eliminated the differences of high and low and established that all human beings are equal.
Usually, harvesting of wheat was also initiated on the occasion of Baisakhi, but this time it has been delayed in view of prolonged winter spell in the region.
Meanwhile, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh had greeted the people on the occasion of Baisakhi.
Chithirai back in reckoning
Tamil Nadu heralded Nandhana - the Tamil New Year - on Friday with traditional fervour.
Puthandu Vazthukkal (new year greetings) is how friends and relatives greeted one another in the morning in person or over the phone.
The Tamil new year is celebrated on the first day of Tamil month Chithirai, which normally falls on April 13 or 14.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the former chief minister in 2008 had decided that Tamil New Year would be observed in January coinciding with Pongal. The harvest festival is observed in the Tamil month of Thai and he issued a decree fixing the first day of Thai as the Tamil New Year. Interestingly, people ignored the diktat and celebrated new year on the first day of Chithirai.
With Karunanidhi out of power, the new year day was reverted back to the first day of Chithirai. “Well, for the next four years it will be like this. If the DMK makes a come back in 2016, there is a possibility of the new year getting reverted back to the month of Thai,” said a political commentator.
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