Celebrating the harvest of Winter Crops- “lohri” with MyAsusZenFone

Amidst the chilly cold weather, with the temperature wobbling between 0-5 degrees Celsius and the dense fog outside, this year we celebrated Lohri in the “IIM Lucknow Noida” campus with my new MyAsusZenFone. This was the long-awaited bonfire festival since we had started the preparation well in advance for this festival. Traditionally this festival is celebrated to honor the harvesting of the Rabi (winter) crops and enjoying the traditional folk songs and dances.

My New MyAsusZenFone

Importance of Lohri
In Punjab, wheat is the main winter crop. It is sown in October and reaped in March or April. In January, the fields come up with the potential of a golden yield, and farmers rejoice Lohri during this rest period before the harvesting of crops. According to the Hindu calendar, Lohri falls in mid-January. This year Lohri was celebrated on 14th January.

The Bonfire Customary of Lohri

In the night with the sunset, huge bonfires are lit in the mowed fields and in the front empty place of houses. People gather around the growing flames, move around (parikrama) the bonfire and throw puffed rice, popcorn and other snacks into the fire, shouting “Aadar aye dilather jaye” (May uprightness come and scarcity disappear!), and sing common traditional songs. This is a sort of appeal to Agni( the fire god) , to laud the land with richness and affluence.

Lohri Flame

After the parikrama, populace meets families and kins, exchange greetings and gifts, and distribute holly offerings (called Prasad) made to god. The prasad comprises five main items: til, gajak, jaggery, peanuts, and popcorn. Winter foods are served around the bonfire with the traditional dinner of makki-di-roti (multi-millet hand-rolled bread) and sarson-da-saag (cooked mustard herbs). Common eatables are liketil (sesame) seeds, peanuts, jaggery, or sweets like gajak, rewri, etc.

Celebration of Lohri in Our Campus

Celebration in campus was the first of 2015. We could not celebrate the New Year since one of our seniors had expired. So the party was planned for today despite our hectic schedule.

In the evening at around 7.30pm once the classes got over, the fire was lit and food was being served. The whole group went around the flame five times, and we sang some songs (some of our batch-mates managed to sing the local folk songs). During the process of taking rounds, we were also offering foods to the flames as a mark of respect (this is a tradition). Our professors also wished us for our celebrations. Some of them joined the bonfire along with us for doing the offerings and then left.

Now it was time to enjoy some hot starters served by the special cook arranged on that day. As we enjoyed the food, some people already started hitting the floor for the night long celebration. Traditionally people do a bangra dance after offering to the bonfire is done. Ours was a dance on the tunes of some famous music tracks. Dancing continued till 10.45 pm. We had arranged ourselves in different groups. Groups were dancing, taking break for refreshment and then dancing again. the dance floor was never empty. It was fun to dance on the floor.

Despite next day’s morning class, the fun time spent with batch mates is a lifelong memory. Even after the event, some of us just sat in the comfort of fire flame despite chilly weather and shared some of our thoughts. Without My Asus ZenFone, I would not have been able to capture some of the memories and at the same enjoy the lohri celebration. Thanks Asus ZenFone for framing my memories permanently.

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