Lohri Essay

The people of Punjab celebrate Lohri with utmost zest every year on 13th January. It is believed that the festival is celebrated on the day when days start becoming shorter and the nights start becoming longer. This festival is celebrated as the harvest festival and on this day people light bonfire, sing and dance in joy to pay respect to the Dulha Batti. Though, it is the key festival of Punjabis but some Northern states of India also observe this festival which including Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. The people of Sindhi community observe this festival as “Lal Loi”. Punjabi people living in various corners of the world also celebrate Lohri with same fervour.

Here are some short essays on Lohri which will teach our readers the various facets of Lohri celebration:

1. The Reason behind Lohri Celebration

People have many assumptions regarding the celebration of Lohri festival in Punjab, some of which include:

• Lohri is considered to have been derived from the word “Loi”, who was the wife of kabir, the great saint.
• While some people believe that it originated from the word “Loh” which is a device used for making chapattis.
• In some parts of the state people also believe that the festival’s name originated from the name of the sister of Holika, who survived the fire while Holika herself died.
• Besides that, some people also believe that that the word Lohri originated from the word tilorhi which comes from the combination of the words rorhi and til.

The festival is celebrated in various parts of the country with different names and people wait for this day desperately. In Andhra Pradesh it is celebrated with the name Bhogi. Similarly in Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala the festival is celebrated with the names Magha Bihu, Pongal and Tai Pongal respectively. On the other hand people of UP and Bihar call it the celebration of Makar Sankranti.

2. How Is Lohri Celebrated?

People of India celebrate Lohri with lots of happiness and joy like many other festivals. It is one of those festivals which give an opportunity to family and friends to gather together and spend together some quality time. On Lohri people visit their friends and family and distribute sweets. This festival is particularly significant for farmers as it is considered to be a harvest season. People celebrate the festival by lighting up bonfire and dancing and singing around the bonfires. While singing and dancing around the fire, people throw popcorns, gur, rewaries, sugar-candies and sesame seeds.

On this day, in evening a pooja ceremony is held in every household. This is the time when people get blessing from the almighty by doing parikrama and offering Pooja. According to the customs and rituals people on this day eat foods like makki ki roti with Sarso ka Saag, gur, gazak, til, moongphali, phoolia and Prasad. In addition to that people also wear new clothes on this day and perform Bhangra which is a folk dance of Punjab. For farmers, this day marks the beginning of a new financial year. For newlywed couples and new born babies this festival also holds great importance. On this day newlywed brides gets gifts from all the family members and they are supposed to wear all the ornaments that brides usually wear on their marriage day.

3. Modern day Lohri Celebration

Earlier people used to celebrate Lohri by gifting each other Gajaks, while in the contemporary world the trend has been gradually changing and people prefer gifting chocolates and cakes instead of gajaks. With the increasing threat to the environment with the roaring pollution agents people have become more conscious and they prefer not to light up bonfires. People avoid cutting on more trees and plants for lighting up bonfires on Lohri. Instead they celebrate Lohri by plnting more and more trees so that they can contribute to the environmental protection in the long run.