Significance of Baisakhi Festival in Punjab

      Baisakhi is a festival, celebrated on the first day of the month Baisakh, 13th or 14th of April, especially in the Punjab. The clouds and lightening on the first of the light half of Baisakh (April) presage an abundant harvest, as does the concurrence of Thursday and the asterism Rohini on the first of Baisakh, on which date the accounts of the last harvest are settled. Right from the start of April, Baisakhi is in the air. The fresh aroma of wheat mingled with sweet smell of fresh leaves, sprouting out of almost every tree, makes one a changed person. With every passing day, the colour of lust green wheat changes to glittering gold. The happiness that one gets up to this time starts degenerating. The gold is separated from plants by machines and is carried to Mundis (markets) for sale. The price is fixed by the buyer; not the growers. The farmer is called Anndata (giver of food). This is why he celebrates Baisakhi to forget all about himself and his woes (receipt of less money worth his crop).

Baisakhi

      On Baisakhi day; the farmers dance and dine. Fanners go gaga with booze. City public take it for granted that farmers dress up in colourful costumes with "Turley wali pagri" (Turban with one corner flying high) on the head. The women dress up in coloured embroidered dress for dash. People belonging to retail entertainment, particularly halwa (Sweetmeat sellers) think of it to be their birth right to part farmers of their sweet money; be selling Jalebi (Coiled ground gram powder paste fried in ghee and sweetened) to every farmer.

      Baisakhi, however has changed its meaning now a days, like all other festivals. It has lost its path. People living in cities think Baishakhi to be something as a windfall for the farmers. It is not so, because the farmer is not authorized to sell at his own term. The price is fixed by the buyer. It is not the seller; who quotes the price, it is the buyer; so this is a cause for dissatisfaction for the farmers and the charm of Baisakhi, is no longer the same, as it used to be. But still the farmers enjoy in colourful costumes and carry on Bhangra dance, so famous in the culture of Punjab and known all over the world.

      In Bengal Baisakhi festival is called Pohala Boishakh, which celebrates with great feast of a cuisine in Bengali culture. In Andhra Pradesh (South), this festival is called Ugadi, which is celebrated with elaborate rituals and ceremonies, an occasion for native New Year day.

      In Assam, the festival is known as Bohag Bihu, for bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year. The festival lasts a week. It marks the onset of the agricultural season. The intoxicating and joyous mood of spring that prevails normally pervades the dance and music. In the festival songs of love and yearning are sung. Buffalo horn pipes are played hauntingly and drums build up a steady crescendo.