‘Sair’ marks end of rainy season
The Sair festival that is celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervour coincides with mid-September Sankranti, marks the end of Bhadon (month of retrieving rain) and the onset of clear bright days of Ashwin month.
A harvest festival, Sair announces the end of the monsoon season. The festival is deeply rooted in the culture of people residing in Kangra district. Kharif crops get ripened and it is time for harvest.
Talking to the Tribune, Pahari author Prof Gautam Vyathit narrated a famous saying in Kangra, “Lagge Teer-Sukhe Neer”, meaning the heat generated by the bright sunshine dries up the moisture and also facilitates drying of paddy and maize before approaching winters. The first offering of the fresh harvest is made to the God and obeisance is paid to ancestors.
According to Prof Vyathit, the festival finds a mention in ‘Baramasa’, a popular theme based on seasons widely prevalent in songs as well as Kangra miniature art of the Kangra Janpad. He said the preparations for Sair begin a night before, with people gathering their harvest, including maize, guava, lemon, etc. As per the tradition, which is now getting extinct, the next morning a village barber would visit each house, carrying the symbol of Sair Devi. He would receive some of the season’s harvest, along with coins and other offerings.
The festival also brings along culinary delights. Traditional dishes like dahi bhalla, aloo ki sabji, meethi roti, gulgule (fried sweet balls), bhaturu (fried bread), Kabuli channe and pakodu are prepared and shared with family and friends. Walnut offerings on Sair emphasise the consumption of nuts during the approaching cold months.
It is time for gaddi nomads to begin their journey from higher reaches in Chamba and Lahaul & Spiti to lower hills of Kangra, Una and Hoshiarpur with their livestock in tow, in search of greener pastures. The newlywed women return to their in-laws after spending one month in their maternal homes during Bhadon.
