Lohri 2027

About Lohri

Lohri marks the end of the coldest stretch of winter and the turn toward longer days. For farming families of Punjab it is also a thanksgiving for the rabi crop growing in the fields and for the sugarcane harvest, which is why jaggery and sugarcane sweets are at its centre. The fire is honoured as a giver of warmth and plenty, and every offering made to it carries thanks for the year's work and hope for the season ahead.

Lohri is kept in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Delhi, and by Punjabi families wherever they live. Its best-known songs are about Dulla Bhatti, a folk hero of Punjab remembered for rescuing young girls from being sold and arranging their marriages as a father would. Children go from house to house singing Sundar mundriye ho, and households give them rewri, peanuts, sweets or a little money.

In the evening a bonfire is built in the courtyard or the street. People walk around it and throw in til, rewri, gajak, peanuts and popcorn, keeping some to eat themselves. There is bhangra and giddha to the dhol, and songs late into the night. Dinner is often sarson da saag with makki di roti, and on the next day, Maghi, many homes eat rau di kheer, rice cooked in sugarcane juice. The first Lohri of a newborn child, or of a newly married couple, is celebrated with special joy: relatives are invited, sweets are shared and the baby or the couple is at the heart of the gathering. Many families today celebrate a daughter's first Lohri just as warmly as a son's.

A practical note: Lohri follows the solar calendar, so it is kept on the evening before the Sun enters Makara, the day Makar Sankranti begins. When the Sun's entry moves by a day, Lohri moves with it.