Announcing event – Harvest: The Festival of Rice

Each day of the year flies off so fast that its hard to believe that we have crossed 365 days and even more on leap years between to New Year celebrations. The winter sets in with loads of happiness. Christmas and New Year rings the bells for enjoyment and merriment. It is the time of harvest in India. US celebrate it as Thanks Giving, but that is couple of months before hat in India. In India the harvesting festival is celebrated with much glory. It is called by different names in all over India – Nabanno, Makar Shankranti, Pongal are just a few to mention.

While most of the Hindu festivals are followed according to the lunar calendar, the Sankranti festival is celebrated in accordance with the solar calendar, and so the date never changes from the English date of 14^th January. It is the day when the Hindus believe that the Sun god begins ascending to the Northern Hemisphere.

The Puranas say that this is the day when the Sun-God visits the house of his son Shani, though the son and father do not get along nicely. So this is day has an important significance of father son relationship.

It is also said that this the day when Lord Vishnu ended the terrorism of the Asuras and buried their heads under the Mandar Parvat. So this day also stands for the end of evil and begins an era of righteousness.

In Uttar Pradesh this day is called “Khichdi”. Taking a dip in the Ganges is thought to be auspicious on this day. The Magh Mela is celebrated during this time of the year in Prayag, better known as Allahabad.

In Maharashtra and Gujarat it is celebrated as Sankranti. Sweets made of sesame seeds and jaggery are distributed among families. Married women are invited to their relatives’ houses and are offered utensils. Especially in Gujarat kite flying is a marked for this day.

Lahari is celebrated in Punjab where families gather around a bonfire and throw in sweets, sugarcane and rice. The next day of Lahari is Maghi. This day is marked with the famous Bhangra dance in Punjab.

Bihu festival of Assam is celebrated on this very day.

Bengal sees a huge swarming of devotees from all over India and also abroad to take a holy dip at Sagar Islands, where the Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal.

Andhra Pradesh celebrates it as a four day festival. The Telugus call it the Pedda Panduga, naming each day as Bhogi, Sankranti, Kanuma and Mukkanuma respectively.

As mentioned above, almost every state of India has its own way of celebrating this festival. It is the day of celebration and bringing home the newly cut harvest from the fields.

Every year my mom prepares different kinds of sweets all made of rice or rice flour. So this time I thought of celebrating it in my way, with you all.

Prepare anything where the main ingredient is either rice or rice flour. The preparation can be vegan or non-vegitarian, depending upon your choice. You can also take some idea from the following recipes.

Send in your entries to bengalicuisine@gmail.com with the Subject as “Harvest: The Festival of Rice”, with the following details.

• NAME:
• BLOG NAME:
• BLOG URL:
• POST NAME:
• POST URL:
• Attach a picture of the preparation in jpeg, jpg

The last day for receiving all entries is 31^st January 2009. No late entries will be entertained. I’ll post the round up on 2^nd February.

Feel free to use the event logo, and put a link on your blog for this event. If you want to send any old posts then please update it with the event logo and a link back to this announcement.

Those of you who don’t have a blog, send in your recipe along with a photo of the dish to the above mentioned e-mail id.

It would be nice of you if you can also add your memories related to this time of the year, also post photos if you have decorated your house for the event.

There is no limit to the number of entries you can send, so put on your aprons and start preparing.Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.