Lohri, harbinger of inner light

Lohri is a precursor to the festivals of Maghi, Pongal and Bihu throughout India. It marks the movement of the Sun away from Makar (Capricorn) to the north signifying the last day of the month of Paush. 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, said Prof. Kumool Abbi. Spiritually, the inner darkness is dispelled.

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 dalidhar jaye (may honour come and poverty vanish)‘ in the form of sesame, peanuts, popcorn, puffed rice and jaggery.

Throughout history, fire has been venerated as power and associated with purity, luminescence and glow. Cosmologically the fire has an intimate cultural connection with the institutions of family and kinship, the rituals, customs, ceremonies of birth, marriage and death which invoke Agni. Linked to the solar calendar, Lohri, like Pongal, is a very significant religious and cultural festival. It signifies abundance, bounty, prosperity, fertility symbolising joy, brightness, warmth, continuity, copiousness and the community spirit. The fire is considered to be animate, alive and pure. A solemnisation of marriage or the birth of a male child is celebrated. However, with modern values and education of daughters, Lohri has also become a new custom. The Sikh religion commemorates the sacrifice of the 40 muktas at the Maghi Mela at Muktsar. Lastly 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.

Published - January 13, 2025 05:00 am IST