Importance of Bhogi, Lohri

Published - January 14, 2023 05:13 am IST

Accumulation of knowledge and good deeds are the only permanent aspects in this world. However, most of us hoard a lot of earthly goods, fill ourselves with envy and petty competitiveness. Bhogi, celebrated every year on the last day of Margazhi is an annual reminder to spring clean our inner self, said Dhamal Ramakrishnan in a discourse. It is the day to get rid of negative energy and turn one’s mind towards salvation and make a fresh start. Our puranas and ancient texts such as Silappathigaram also highlight Bhogi, the important time when sun, the source of all energy, starts moving towards the northern hemisphere.

At the same time, throughout north India, significantly establishing the string of cultural links between the far-stretched regions, devotees celebrate Lohri, a very significant religious and cultural festival, said Professor Kumool Abbih. Offering thanksgiving to the Sun God, Lohri heralds the beginning of the end of the dark, bleak, dreary winters and the beginning of warm days. Anthropologically it is related to the agricultural calendar. It heralds the harvesting of the Rabi crops. A bonfire is lit and oblations are offered to the sacred fire. ’Aadr aaye diladar jaye’ (may honour come and poverty vanish) in the form of sesame, peanuts, popcorn, puffed rice and jaggery.

Cosmologically the fire has a close cultural connection with the institutions of family and kinship, the rituals, customs, ceremonies of birth, marriage and death which invoke Agni. The festival of Lohri signifies abundance, bounty and the community spirit. The fire is considered to be animate, alive and pure. The festival of Lohri invokes many legends, the most popular linked to Punjab’s Robinhood Dulla Bhatti, an outlaw during Akbar’s reign, who saved the honour of two Hindu brahmin girls and got them married on Lohri. The sight of children going around houses singing Sundri mundri ho, tera kaun vichara ho, Dulla Bhatti wala ho asking for Lohri is an integral part of Punjabi folklore.

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