Ugadi, also known as Samvatsarādi or Yugadi, is celebrated as the New Year’s Day for the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka in India. Yugadi or Ugadi falls on Chaitra Shudhdha Paadyami or the first day of the bright half of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month of Chaitra. This usually falls in either late March or early April months of the Gregorian calendar. The word yugadi or Ugadi, when divided, forms 2 Sanskrit words- yuga, meaning age and adi meaning beginning. Put together, the word signifies the beginning of a new age. The Kannadiga people use the term Yugadi and the Telugu people use the term Ugadi for this festival.

Greetings

In Kannada, people say the greeting Yugadi Habbada Shubhaashayagalu, which means Greetings for the festival of Yugadi, or Hosa varshada shubhashayagalu, meaning Greetings on the New Year.

In Telugu, the traditional greetings for Ugadi are kroththa yeta, ugadi panduga, palukarimpulu or ugadi subhaakankshalu, all of them meaning Greetings for the festival of Ugadi and Nutana samvastara shubhaakankshalu, meaning Greetings on the New Year.

How to Celebrate Ugadi

The Kannada, Kodava, Telugu and the Tulu people in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala celebrate the festival with immense displays of fanfare.

Preparations for Ugadi begin almost a week ahead. The houses are cleaned thoroughly. People also clean the front of their house with water and cow dung paste. Then, colorful patterns are drawn on the floor, called Muggulu (Rangoli). People offer prayer in temples.

The day of Ugadi begins with having ritual showers, then massaging the body with perfumed oil, followed by prayers. It is a norm to have huge gatherings of extended families, who celebrate together with an extravagant feast. Special dishes are prepared for the occasion. In Karnataka, Ugadi Kannada recipes like holige, obattu and mango pickles are made. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Ugadi recipes like pulihora, bobbatlu and pachadi along with preparations made with raw mango.

Pachadi, also known as Ugadi Pachadi is most renowned- it is chutney- like dish which includes ingredients to give all flavors: sweet, sour, tangy and bitter. This festive cuisine is made from tamarind paste, neem flowers, brown sugar or jaggery, salt, and sometimes mango. It is a symbolic reminder of complex phases of life one should reasonably expect in the New Year.

According to Vasudha Narayanan, a professor of Religion at the University of Florida:

The pachadi 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 amidst 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.

Associated Festivals

The celebration of Ugadi is marked by religious enthusiasm and social happiness. Ugadi is also connected to various other festivals in the Hindu religion.

• The Hindus of Tamil Nadu celebrate Tamizh Puthandu on 14 April.
• The Hindus of Maharashtra term the same festival, observed on the same day, Gudi Padwa.
• The Sindhis, people from Sindh, celebrate the same day as Cheti Chand, which is the beginning of their calendar year.
• Manipuri people celebrate their New Year as Sajibu Nongma Panba on the same day.
• The Hindus of Bali and Indonesia also celebrate their new year on the same day as Nyepi.

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