Ugadi

Etymology

The name Yugadi or Ugadi is derived from the Sanskrit words yuga (age) and ādi (beginning): "the beginning of a new age."

The Telugu people use the term Ugadi (ఉగాది), and the Kannadigas use the term Yugadi (ಯುಗಾದಿ) for this festival.

Practices

The Kannada and Telugu communities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu celebrate the festival with great fanfare; gatherings of the extended family and a sumptuous feast are required. The day begins early with ritual showers, rubbing the body with perfumed oil, followed by prayers.

Preparations for the festival begin a week ahead. Houses are given a thorough clean. People buy new clothes, including dhoti, and buy new items for the festival to decorate the entrance of their houses with fresh mango leaves. Mango leaves and coconuts are considered auspicious in the Hindu tradition, and they are used on Ugadi. People also clean the front of their house with water and cow dung paste, then draw colorful floral designs. People offer prayers in temples. The celebration of Ugadi is marked by religious zeal and social merriment. According to Vasudha Narayanan, a professor of religion at the University of Florida: The pacchadi festive dish symbolically reminds the people that the following year – as all of life – will consist of not just sweet experiences, but a combination of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter episodes. Just as the different substances are bound together, one is reminded that no event or episode is wholly good or bad. Even in the midst of bitter experiences, there are sweet moments. One is also reminded that the experience of taste is transitory and ephemeral; so too, is life, and one has to learn to put pain and pleasure in proper temporal perspective.

Special dishes are prepared for the occasion. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, foods such as pulihora, bobbatlu (bhakshalu/polelu/oligale), New Year burelu and pachadi, and preparations made with raw mango go well with the occasion. Of these, pachadi (or Ugadi pacchadi) is the most notable and consists of a chutney-like dish that combines all six flavours of food: sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter, and astringent. This festive Hindu food is made from tamarind paste (sour), neem flowers (bitter), brown sugar or sweet jaggery (sweet), table salt (salty), green chili (spicy), and raw mango (astringent). It is a symbolic reminder of complex phases of life one should reasonably expect in the new year.

In Karnataka, foods such as Holige or Obattu and mango pickles are made. In addition, a speciality of Yugadi in Karnataka is to create "bevu bella" a mixture of neem and jaggery, to signify both the sweet and the bitter, or the sihi-kahi(ಸಿಹಿ-ಕಹಿ). This symbolizes life's own experiences with a bit of bitterness and a hint of sweetness.

In Telugu, the traditional greetings for Ugadi are kroththa yeta, ugadi panduga, palukarimpulu or ugadi subhaakankshalu – "క్రొత్త ఏట" / "ఉగాది పండుగ" పలుకరింపులు, లేదా ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు ("Greetings for the festival of Ugadi") and Nutana samvastara shubhaakankshalu -నూతన సంవత్సర శుభాకాంక్షలు ("Greetings on the New Year"). --

Related festivals

Maharashtran Hindus refer to the festival, observed on the same day, as Gudi Padwa (). The Sindhis celebrate the same day as Cheti Chand, which is the beginning of their calendar year. Manipuris also celebrate their New Year as Sajibu Nongma Panba on the same day.

The Hindus of Bali in Indonesia also celebrate their new year on the same day as Nyepi. Ugadi is one of the five Hindu national public holidays in Mauritius.

References

References

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