| Ugadi | |
|---|---|
 Ugadi Pachadi withpuja tray | |
| Official name | ఉగాది (Telugu), ಯುಗಾದಿ (Kannada) |
| Also called | Samvatsaradi, Yugadi |
| Observed by | Hindus inAndhra Pradesh,Telangana,Karnataka andTamil Nadu of India andMauritius |
| Type | Religious (Hindu), social, cultural |
| Celebrations | Muggu/Rangoli, visiting Temples, Feast with Bobbattu, Holige and Bevu Bella |
| Date | Chaitra Shukla Pratipada |
| 2025 date | 30 March (Sunday) |
| 2026 date | 19 March (Thursday) |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Related to | Gudi PadwaCheti Chand |
| Explanatory note on Hindu festival dates | |
|---|---|
TheHindu calendar is lunisolar but most festival dates are specified using the lunar portion of the calendar. A lunar day is uniquely identified by three calendar elements:māsa (lunar month),pakṣa (lunar fortnight) andtithi (lunar day). Furthermore, when specifying the masa, one of two traditions are applicable, viz.amānta /pūrṇimānta. If a festival falls in the waning phase of the moon, these two traditions identify the same lunar day as falling in two different (but successive) masa. A lunar year is shorter than a solar year by about eleven days. As a result, most Hindu festivals occur on different days in successive years on the Gregorian calendar. | |
Ugādi (Telugu:ఉగాది) orYugādi (Kannada:ಯುಗಾದಿ), also known asSamvatsarādi (lit. 'beginning of the year'), is the first day of the year on theHindu calendar. It is traditionally celebrated by theTelugu people and theKannadigas in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, as well as bydiasporan communities elsewhere.[1][2] The cycle consists of 60 years—each year individually named. It is observed on the first day of the Hindulunisolar calendar month ofChaitra.[3] This typically falls in late March or early April of the Gregorian calendar.[3] It also sometimes falls on the day after Amavasya with the 27th Nakshatra Revati. Ugadi Day is pivoted on the first new moon after theMarch equinox.
The day is observed by drawing colourful patterns on the floor calledMuggulu/Rangoli, mango leaf decorations on doors calledtorana, buying and giving gifts such as new clothes, giving charity to the poor, oil massages followed by special baths, preparing and sharing a special food calledpachadi, and visiting Hindu temples.[4][5] Thepachadi is a notable festive food that combines allflavors – sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent, and piquant. In Kannada and Telugu harvest traditions, it is a symbolic reminder that one must expect all flavors of experiences in the coming new year and make the most of them.[6] Followers of the Souramana calendar system observe Ugadi in Karnataka, when the sun transits into theAries constellation, which is also the festival ofBaisakhi and is locally known as Souramana Ugadi or Mesha Sankranti.[7]
Ugadi has been an important and historic festival of the Hindus, with medieval texts and inscriptions recording major charitable donations to Hindu temples and community centers on this day.[8] The same day is observed as a New Year by Hindus in many other parts of India, such asGudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Goa, and is a national public holiday inMauritius.
The name Yugadi or Ugadi is derived from theSanskrit wordsyuga (age) andādi (beginning): "the beginning of a new age."[6] Yugadi or Ugadi falls on "Chaitra Shudhdha Paadyami," or the first day of the bright half of the Indian month ofChaitra. This generally falls in late March or early April of the Gregorian calendar.[3][4]
The Telugu people use the term Ugadi[9] (ఉగాది),[10] and theKannadigas use the term Yugadi (ಯುಗಾದಿ) for this festival.[11][12]
The Kannada and Telugu communities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, andTamil 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.[5]
Preparations for the festival begin a week ahead. Houses are given a thorough clean.[5] People buy new clothes, including dhoti, and buy new items for the festival to decorate the entrance of their houses with fresh mango leaves.[4] 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.[4] People offer prayers in temples. The celebration of Ugadi is marked by religious zeal and social merriment.[13][6][14][15] According to Vasudha Narayanan, a professor of religion at the University of Florida:[16]
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.[6] [sic]
Special dishes are prepared for the occasion. InAndhra Pradesh andTelangana, 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 (orUgadi 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.[17] 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.[16][14][18]
InKarnataka, 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.
Maharashtran Hindus refer to the festival, observed on the same day, as Gudi Padwa (Marathi:गुढी पाडवा).[19] TheSindhis celebrate the same day asCheti Chand, which is the beginning of their calendar year.[20]Manipuris also celebrate their New Year asSajibu Nongma Panba on the same day.[21]
The Hindus ofBali inIndonesia also celebrate their new year on the same day asNyepi.[22] Ugadi is one of the five Hindu national public holidays in Mauritius.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
| Philosophy |
|  | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texts |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Deities |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Practices |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||||||||
