By Hash
Ugadi also known as Yugadi, is the New Year for Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. The word ‘Yuga’ means ‘age’ and ‘Adi’ means ‘beginning’ in Sanskrit. This day usually falls in the months of March and April. This year, Ugadi was on the 13th of April.
The celebrations begin when the entire household wakes up before dawn to have the customary oil head bath. The statues of gods and goddesses are also bathed in oil and decorated with flowers and appropriate attire. The entrance of the house is beautified with coloured rangoli on the floor, called Muggulu. The front door has a string of neem and mango leaves, called torana.
The special type of food that is prepared is called Ugadi pachadi. The pachadi itself is a mixture of jaggery, tamarind juice, salt, raw mango, green chillies, neem flower or bud. The combination of these different tastes signifies that life is a mixture of ups and downs. Jaggery has a sweet taste and it symbolises happiness; tamarind juice has a sour taste represents unpleasantness; salty taste is from salt, this symbolises the fear of an unknown phase; raw mangos symbolise surprises in life; spice from the green chilli represents anger; bitter taste symbolises sadness.
Naivedhya is the food items offered to god. Traditionally, semiya payasam, sweet pongal, rava kesari, rice payasam, poornam boorelu, garelu, chalimidi, panakam (drink) are made at home. This is offered to the deity before the family eats them.
After the oil bath, deity worship and ugadi pachadi, the next thing to look forward to is the scrumptious lunch. For lunch, pulihora, mango rice, coconut rice, bisi belle bath and curd rice are traditionally prepared at home. For the sweet lovers also there is a big sweet feast. Usually, there are ladoos made of rava, coconut, boondi, kova and burfi made of coconut and rava, and mysore pak.
Usually after the big feast, people spend time with their family and friends and so the day ends with a happy note!
Sources:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/A_Happy_Ugadi_puja_tray_Telugu_Hindu_New_Year_Vaisakhi.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naivedhya
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