Harvest festivals in India are celebrated around the country with much enthusiasm. Its rituals, as diverse as the communities practising them, are a reminder of the deep connection shared between the people and their land – owned not just by title but also by sweat and memory-making. Here, we showcase a few of the celebratory rituals that men, women and children come together to take part in, in celebration of a rich harvest.
One of the most prominent Indian harvest festivals is Lohri, celebrated to mark the end of the winter season in North India. The onset of longer days is welcomed with vibrant folk song and dance, around a bonfire that symbolizes the worship of Surya, the Sun god. Winter harvest, like sugarcane and mustard greens, is used to prepare local delicacies and to make offerings to the gods.
(Photo by Sukhan Saar – own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70849614)
Lohri is almost immediately followed by Makar Sankranti – a popular Hindu festival that also marks the onset of longer days. Ablutions in the river, elaborate feasts, rites around the sun god and in some parts of India, kite-flying is observed in celebration.
In April, lesser-known festivals emerge around the country, marking the arrival of spring. Among the animistic Garo tribe in Arunachal Pradesh, a domesticated animal is sacrificed to the goddess of fertility. In Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, gud or jaggery takes a central place in preparation of local delicacies during Gudi Padwa and Ugadi – the beginning of another age.
In the little-explored rural heartland of India, harvest festivals are celebrated with enthusiasm by tribal communities. In some places, the fertility of the land is associated with the fertility of young girls, who take precedence in special rituals of worship. A rich repertoire of folk songs and poetry exists in local dialects, adding to the diversity of vibrant thanksgiving celebrations.
While every community has its peculiar celebratory rituals, the preserved sentiment is constant – of a relationship built on toil and labour with the soil. The roles of a farmer and his child-like land in the sowing period, are reversed to one of a son and his motherland post-harvest.
