Gudi Padwa | 10 Apr 2024
Why in News?
Recently, people celebrated the auspicious occasion of Gudi Padwa symbolising the commencement of the Hindu New Year with joy and religious fervour.
Key Points
- Devotees also embarked on the nine-day Chaitra Shukla Pratipada:
- It marks the beginning of the new year of the Vikram Samvat also known as the Vedic [Hindu] calendar.
- Vikram Samvat is based on the day when the emperor Vikramaditya defeated Sakas, invaded Ujjain and called for a new era.
- Under his supervision, astronomers formed a new calendar based on the luni-solar system that is still followed in the northern regions of India.
- It is the first day during the waxing phase (in which the visible side of the moon is getting bigger every night) of the moon in the Chaitra (first month of Hindu calendar).
Gudi Padwa and Ugadi
- The people of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka celebrate the New Year as Ugadi while Maharashtra and Goa mark the day's celebrations with Gudi Padwa.
- The common practice in the celebrations of both the festivals is the festive food that is prepared with a mix of sweet and bitter.
- A famous concoction served is jaggery (sweet) and neem (bitter), called bevu-bella in the South, signifying that life brings both happiness and sorrows.
- Gudi is a doll prepared in Maharashtrian homes.
- A bamboo stick is adorned with green or red brocade to make the gudi. This gudi is placed prominently in the house or outside a window/ door for all to see.
- For Ugadi, doors in homes are adorned with mango leaf decorations called toranalu or Torana in Kannada.