Ugadi
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Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx) or Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx), also known as Samvatsarādi (Template:Lit), is the first day of the year on the Hindu calendar. It is traditionally celebrated by the Telugu people and the Kannadigas in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, as well as by diasporan communities elsewhere.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The cycle consists of 60 years—each year individually named. It is observed on the first day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month of Chaitra.<ref name="dalal427">Template:Cite book</ref> This typically falls in late March or early April of the Gregorian calendar.<ref name="dalal427" /> It also sometimes falls on the day after Amavasya with the 27th Nakshatra Revati. Ugadi Day is pivoted on the first new moon after the March equinox.
The day is observed by drawing colourful patterns on the floor called Muggulu/Rangoli, mango leaf decorations on doors called torana, buying and giving gifts such as new clothes, giving charity to the poor, oil massages followed by special baths, preparing and sharing a special food called pachadi, and visiting Hindu temples.<ref name="Jagannathan2005p77"/><ref name="Fowler1997p72">Template:Cite book</ref> The pachadi is a notable festive food that combines all flavors Template:Endash sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent, and piquant. In Kannada and Telugu harvest traditions, it is a symbolic reminder that one must expect all flavors of experiences in the coming new year and make the most of them.<ref name=narayanan18/> Followers of the Souramana calendar system observe Ugadi in Karnataka, when the sun transits into the Aries constellation, which is also the festival of Baisakhi and is locally known as Souramana Ugadi or Mesha Sankranti.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ugadi has been an important and historic festival of the Hindus, with medieval texts and inscriptions recording major charitable donations to Hindu temples and community centers on this day.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The same day is observed as a New Year by Hindus in many other parts of India, such as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Goa, and is a national public holiday in Mauritius.
Etymology
The name Yugadi or Ugadi is derived from the Sanskrit words yuga (age) and ādi (beginning): "the beginning of a new age."<ref name=narayanan18/> Yugadi or Ugadi falls on "Chaitra Shudhdha Paadyami," or the first day of the bright half of the Indian month of Chaitra. This generally falls in late March or early April of the Gregorian calendar.<ref name=dalal427/><ref name="Jagannathan2005p77">Template:Cite book</ref>
The Telugu people use the term Ugadi<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (ఉగాది),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the Kannadigas use the term Yugadi (ಯುಗಾದಿ) for this festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Practices
The Kannada and Telugu communities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu celebrate the festival with great fanfare; gatherings of the extended family and a sumptuous feast are required. The day begins early with ritual showers, rubbing the body with perfumed oil, followed by prayers.<ref name="Fowler1997p72"/>
Preparations for the festival begin a week ahead. Houses are given a thorough clean.<ref name="Fowler1997p72"/> People buy new clothes, including dhoti, and buy new items for the festival to decorate the entrance of their houses with fresh mango leaves.<ref name="Jagannathan2005p77"/> Mango leaves and coconuts are considered auspicious in the Hindu tradition, and they are used on Ugadi. People also clean the front of their house with water and cow dung paste, then draw colorful floral designs.<ref name="Jagannathan2005p77"/> People offer prayers in temples. The celebration of Ugadi is marked by religious zeal and social merriment.<ref>Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi 91977), Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings Template:Webarchive, Current Anthropology, University of Chicago Press, Vol. 18, No. 3 (September 1977), pages 507–514</ref><ref name=narayanan18>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Ancient Tree 2009, pages 36-37">Neem - Ancient Tree, Modern Miracle, Warm Earth, National Library of Australia, No. 83, Mar/Apr 2009, pages 36-37</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to Vasudha Narayanan, a professor of religion at the University of Florida:<ref name="narayanan182" />
The pacchadi festive dish symbolically reminds the people that the following year – as all of life – will consist of not just sweet experiences, but a combination of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter episodes. Just as the different substances are bound together, one is reminded that no event or episode is wholly good or bad. Even in the midst of bitter experiences, there are sweet moments. One is also reminded that the experience of taste is transitory and ephemeral; so too, is life, and one has to learn to put pain and pleasure in proper temporal perspective.<ref name=narayanan18/>Template:Sic
Special dishes are prepared for the occasion. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, foods such as pulihora, bobbatlu (bhakshalu/polelu/oligale), New Year burelu and pachadi, and preparations made with raw mango go well with the occasion. Of these, pachadi (or Ugadi pacchadi) is the most notable and consists of a chutney-like dish that combines all six flavours of food: sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter, and astringent.<ref>Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi 91977), Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings, Current Anthropology, University of Chicago Press, Vol. 18, No. 3 (September 1977), pages 507–514</ref> This festive Hindu food is made from tamarind paste (sour), neem flowers (bitter), brown sugar or sweet jaggery (sweet), table salt (salty), green chili (spicy), and raw mango (astringent). It is a symbolic reminder of complex phases of life one should reasonably expect in the new year.<ref name="narayanan182">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Ancient Tree 2009, pages 36-37"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In Karnataka, foods such as Holige or Obattu and mango pickles are made. In addition, a speciality of Yugadi in Karnataka is to create "bevu bella" a mixture of neem and jaggery, to signify both the sweet and the bitter, or the sihi-kahi(ಸಿಹಿ-ಕಹಿ). This symbolizes life's own experiences with a bit of bitterness and a hint of sweetness.
Related festivals
Maharashtran Hindus refer to the festival, observed on the same day, as Gudi Padwa (Template:Langx).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Sindhis celebrate the same day as Cheti Chand, which is the beginning of their calendar year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Manipuris also celebrate their New Year as Sajibu Nongma Panba on the same day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Hindus of Bali in Indonesia also celebrate their new year on the same day as Nyepi.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Ugadi is one of the five Hindu national public holidays in Mauritius.
See also
References
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