Harvest festivals of Indian states

Harvest festivals of Indian states occurs at the time of main harvest of a the region and people. The 28 states of India celebrated its own Harvest festival at various times throughout the year. Major Harvest festivals in India are Makara Sankranti which is also known as Pongal,Uttarayana,Lohri,Poush Parbon and Bhogali Bihu.

Makara Sankranti in January

Makara Sankranti is one of the major Indian Harvest festival celebrated with different name and innumerable way due to the diversity of culture in India. Festival of Makar Sankranti is most auspicious days for Hindus and take a dip in holy places like Ganga Sagar and Prayag. Makara Sankranti is known as Pongal,Uttarayana,Lohri,Khichdi,Shishur Saenkraat and Maagh Bihu, major kite festival also held at this day in Gujarat. Kumbh Mela 2013 will be the biggest attraction of Indian during the festival of Makara Sankranti, schedule to held in Allahabad at the confluence of the holiest Ganga and Yamuna rivers.

Makara-Sankranti-Festival

Holi in February–March

The festival of colors is celebrated between the February and March month and known as Phagwah as well. Holi has many significance and one of them is changing of season and beginning of the new spring season. Its a bid adieu to winter and welcome the season of spring with enjoyment and pray for good harvests. The religious purpose of Holi is Holika Dahan and Rangapanchami,the Braj region is famous for its traditional Lathmar Holi,a major tourist attraction in India.

Holi-re-rasiya-festival

Baisakhi in April

Baisakhi or Vaisakhi is the major festival celebrated across the north region of India, especially in the Punjab state. Vaisakhi is celebrated as the Indian thanksgiving day by farmers of Punjab, praying for future prosperity and thanking God for harvest. It also has religious significance for the Sikhs community as the foundation of the Panth Khalsa on this day by the Guru Gobind Singh.

Baisakhi-festival

Rongali Bihu in April

Bihu is the national festival of Assam celebrate three time in the year, Maagh in January, Bohaag in April and Kaati in October. Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu is the major among the other and most popular Bihu festival celebrated as the Assamese New Year in mid April along with Spring season. The seven days festival is celebrated with the feeling of joy,worship,traditional cuisines and folk dance.

Bihu-Festival-Assam

Hareli Festival in July-August

Hareli is one of the major harvest festival of tribal Chhattisgarh state,celebrate during the holy month of Sawan or in the month of monsoon (July-August). During the Hareli festival of Chhattisgarh tribes worshipping farm equipment, cows and pray for good crops along with many social and cultural events. Cher-Chera is another most popular harvest festival of Chhattisgarh celebrated with traditional folk songs and dance like raut nacha,Panthi,Gaur Madiya and Karma in the tribal region of state.

Hareli-Festival

Onam in August–September

Onam festival is the grand carnival of Kerala state, celebrated during the month of Chingam (August–September). The ancient festival has a significance of homecoming of the legendary Emperor Mahabali and harvest of rice and rain flowers in Kerala. The ten day festival is celebrated with various festivities such as flower carpets,Vallamkali,Puli Kali and Kaikottikkali.

Onam-dance-in-kerala

Nuakhai in August–September

Nuakhai also known as Nabanna is the Harvesting Festival of Orissa celebrated in the month of August–September. The harvest festival Nuakhai is mostly celebrated in the western region of Orissa and a major social festival of Kosal.

Nuakhai-Festival

Diwali Festival in October-November

The festival of lights is also celebrated as Harvest Festival, as it occurs at the end of a cropping season or the last harvest of the year before winter. Diwali is the most popular festival in India, celebrate the triumph of good over evil, in the form of lighting up of houses, burning the candles and set off fireworks.

Diwali-Festival

Kut Festival in November

Kut festival is a major Post Harvest festival celebrate in the month of November by Kuki-Chin tribes. The annual festival is a leading festivals of Manipur state and does not restricted by community any more, various cultural events are Organized to celebrate the kut festival such as folk dances,traditional dances and songs along with Miss Kut contest. Another harvest festival of Manipur is Chumpha Festival,celebrated by the Tanghul Nagas tribes of the region.

Kut-festival

Tokhu Emong in November

The festival of Tokhu Emong is celebrate by the tribes of Lotha nagas in the first week of November. Tokhu Emong is a popular post harvest festival enjoy with tribal folk dances and old folk songs and held for 9 days.Other harvest festival of the Indian states includes Navanna in West Bengal,Wangala in Meghalaya,Pawl Kut of Mizoram and most famous Garia Puja of Tripura.

Tokhu-Emong-festival

Indian Cuisine: Best cuisine of east India

We look at the best cuisine of east India and the delicious dishes you should sample in Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Sikkim.

Three common threads connect the cuisine of the eastern states of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The first is the use of opium, or rather poppy seeds. The seeds are considered highly nutritious, and the paste of white poppy seeds is added for thickness, texture and a unique flavour.

East-Indian-Food-Thali

Bengal makes the alu posto made with potatoes and gourd. A paste of posto made with ground seeds seasoned with mustard oil, green chili and salt is also had with hot steamed rice. Orissa has jahni alu posta (a potato and gourd dish), and Bihar loves postaa-dana kaa halwa, a sweet pudding made of poppy seeds.

The second common thread is the use of the strong and pungent mustard oil as a cooking medium.

The third is the use of paanch phoron (literally ‘five seeds’ – aniseed, mustard seed, fenugreek, carrom, and nigella seeds). Beyond this, the cuisine of Orissa and Bengal overlap quite a bit with both states laying claim to inventing several famous foods (like the rosogolla, a famous sweet made of cheese).

Bihar

The cuisine of Bihar is a mixture of North and Eastern Indian cuisine. Chickpea flour is used in a variety of ways including the popular litti (baked and stuffed bread made of roasted chickpea flour, pictured below) served with chokha (potato, tomato and brinjal mash), sattu parathas stuffed with chickpea flour and the sattu drink, used in summers to cool down and get quick energy. The sattu along with Bihari kebabs are two signature dishes of Bihar that are popular outside the state as well.

Litti-From-Bihar

Orissa

Orissa, though famous for its food, often gets overshadowed by Bengal. It is believed that most of Bengal’s famous cooks came from Orissa, and quite a few Bengali dishes are derivatives of Oriya cuisine. Dalma is a unique and famous dish prepared in Orissa with vegetables and dal. All meals have a khatta – a sweet and sour dish. The famous khattas are dahi baingan, tomatoes khatta and amba khatta. During scorching summers, the cooling pakhal (pictured below),  made of rice, water, and yogurt fermented overnight, prevents heat strokes.

Pakhala from Orissa

Bengal

Bengal loves fish and no meal is complete without ‘maachher jhol and bhaat’ (fish curry and rice). If you have a sweet tooth, you will be spoilt for choice here as Bengalis are famous for their sweet concoctions (pictured below) – fried, steamed and baked.

Mishti doi, rosogolla and sandesh from Bengal

Try the mishti doi (sweet curd), rosogolla and sandesh (both made from cottage cheese).

The city of Kolkata has its own special cuisine, different from the rest of Bengal. It is influenced by the passage of conquerors and immigrants the city has witnessed over centuries. Street food like kathi kebabs and rolls are influenced by the Mughals. The footprint of the Brits can be seen in the varieties of cutlets including the kabiraji cutlet, the Jews gave alu makallah, the khaw suey came from the Burmese, and the Chinese contributed chowmein and noodles. A signature dish of Kolkata, the Chingri Malai Curry, has Malaysian roots.

Sikkim

Further up from Bengal, towards the Himalayas is the state of Sikkim, which has its own distinctive culinary style influenced by neighbouring Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal. A popular food is the momo (pictured below) – a dumpling stuffed with chicken, pork, beef or vegetables.

Sikkimese people love noodle-based soups with or without meat to keep the chill out. Thukpa, thanthu, gyathuk, and fakthu are one-pot soup meals.

Sha-phaleys are fried patties filled with minced meat had as a snack. Chhurpi is a local cheese made from cow or yak’s milk, commonly used by mountaineers who chew it to maintain salivation.

Momo from Sikkim

Sikkimese use a lot of fermented foods – like kinema, a fermented soybean with a high protein content, and the sel roti made with fermented rice. Gundruk soup (prepared using leaves of mustard, radish and cauliflower) is a great option for vegetarians. So is Sinki made from roots of the radish.

Rice isn’t the only grain, Sikkim uses a wide variety – finger millet, wheat, buckwheat and barley. When the Himalayan chill gets to you, try the local drink chhang, a millet beer served in bamboo tankards, sure to warm you up.

No matter where you travel you’ll find the cuisine of east India offers plenty of variety to get the mouth watering and taste buds tingling!