The Shivalaya Temple of Greater Boston, MA celebrated Lohri, India’s rich harvest festival with great pomp and energy in the new calendar year on Monday, 01/13/2025 evening with hundreds of devotes. This festival begins the year’s festivities with a tribute to the farmers for their hard toil and labor that enables us to live prosperous lives.

In the evening, people from different Indian communities, especially youth and women, gathered for the celebrations. Temple priest, Pt. Bharani Ji performed the puja of Lord Ganesh Ji and Shiva Parivar and other deities of the temple by chanting all the Vedic Mantras. Later devotes sang tradition Lohri songs and danced with newborn babies. Temple honored newborn babies and newlywed couples by giving them Lohri Sesame and Gur sweets and peanuts packets. Devotees heard the majestic sound of the beats of the Dhol/drums to popular Punjabi folk songs. Women and children wore new colorful clothes, and danced to those songs that are sung by children and adults alike.

Pt. Bharani Ji performed Maha Mangalarati of the temple deities by singing Lord Shiva Aarati, a prayerful ceremony that extolled greeting and thanksgiving of the Deities and where devotees are reminded of God's glorious presence and wisdom.  He offered the flowers and Prasadam to the deities. Pt. Bharani Ji expressed his Happy New Year wishes to all the devotees filled with love, prosperity, and divine blessings and said, ‘May this year bring joy and success to your lives.’

The most exciting part of Lohri celebrations was the gathering of family, friends, and neighbors around the bonfire that was lit after the sun set. On the chilly night of the Lohri festival, the bonfire added warmth to all those who congregated around it. Sugarcane, Almonds, Moongphali (peanuts) and Murmur (puffed rice) and Gajak (a sweet dish made of sesame seeds or peanuts and Jaggery) were thrown in the bonfire as offerings to the God of Fire, Agni Deva. They were also distributed as Lohri Prasadam (special gift) to the devotees. The Lohri bonfire signifies the discarding of old ideas, notions, and thoughts and the welcoming of new and good thoughts, prayers, and wishes to all those near and dear to you.

One of the devotees said that he enjoyed Lohri festival celebrations and felt like “Out with the old, in with the new.”

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