Omicron fear casts a shadow on Lohri

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 13

Owing to the prevailing Omicron threat, Lohri was celebrated in all schools and colleges largely on a virtual mode. The celebrations were restricted to Zoom meetings, virtual presentations of Lohri thalis, festival-related painting making and sharing all such activities on WhatsApp groups.

In some campuses, the students did not turn up but the teachers came up in traditional attires to perform giddha and dance around the Lohri fire. Groundnuts, reori, gachak and popcorns were offered to the fire. The dholis, loud Punjabi music and the usual chirp of the students was, however, missing this time.

Emm Aar Int’l, Adampur

The festival of Lohri was celebrated online with great pomp and show under the supervision of principal Navdeep Vashishta via virtual platform due to pandemic restrictions. Lohri is celebrated a day before Makar Sankranti. Traditionally, Lohri is a special festival associated with the sowing and harvesting of crops.

On this day, sesame, jaggery, gajak, revri and groundnuts are offered in the fire, along with the story of Dulla-Bhatti was heard. On this occasion, Emm Aarian’s celebrated the festival with exuberance and fanfare via virtual platform. They wore traditional attire and were completely absorbed in the festive spirit with songs, especially Lohri songs, and folk dance. School Director Dr Simmi Tandon extended her heartiest wishes on the occasion to students, parents and staff.

On this occasion, Sumiti, Shiv Prabha, Radha Sharma, Shivani, Deepika, Pooja, Mohit Shinde, Kamal Thakur, Narinder Kumar, Prabodh Aggarwal and all staff were of special support.

Sanskriti KMV School

Beating the winter chill, the principal and staff joined for the holy rituals of Lohri and sought blessings for the prosperous New Year and progressive days ahead. Even being at home, students of all grades joined in online for prayers. Rachna Monga, Principal, in her online address to the students, extended her kind wishes and mentioned to think and act positive by keeping the morals high with honesty and determination.

MLU DAV College, Phagwara

Lohri was celebrated at MLU DAV College, Phagwara, under the guidance of Dr Kiranjeet Randhawa Principal of the college. A webinar was organised for students by the staff. Students gave speeches and sang songs with great fervor and enthusiasm. Everyone joined in festive attires looking best for the webinar. Dr Randhawa addressed the students about the importance of Lohri. A key symbol of Lohri is the bonfire lighting of the fire which has been common in winter festivals throughout time and to the world it signifies the return of longer days. She further greeted the students and faculty present on the eve of the festival and stressed on the value of the culture. Lohri is the harvest festival of Punjab popularly known as the bread basket state of India. Irrespective of which state or religion people belong to, Lohri is celebrated with equal enthusiasm by everyone. At the end all teachers and students sang songs together. Everyone was in Jolly mood

Lyallpur Khalsa College

The cultural festival of Lohri was celebrated with enthusiasm and joy by the staff at Lyallpur Khalsa College Jalandhar today following the Covid-19 guidelines as per the directions of Punjab Govt. College Principal Dr. Gurpinder Singh Samra led the presence of all the faculty members on this vivacious occasion. Speaking on the occasion, Principal Dr. Gurpinder Singh Samra expressed his best wishes to everyone and hoped for more accomplishments for the institution and its faculty and students. Dr Samra also shed light on the relevance of this fun filled festival and identified this festival as a basis to preserve our rich cultural heritage and to make young generation aware of it. He used the occasion to advise the young generation to recognise the worth of their cultural values and to stay away from social evils thereby subsequently promoting a much needed sense of harmony. He also expressed his happiness on the shift from the traditional Lohri celebrations to the modern day liberal facet of the occasion which has stood up for gender equality and he urged the society to keep up such good initiatives.

Shiv Jyoti Public School

Lohri was observed in Shiv Jyoti Public School. Students of all Classes were made aware about this day through the medium of video presentation. Students Sawni (8-B), Gourish (8-B) and Manthan (7-B) and co-associate teachers Latika Sharma and Sunanda Sharma participated in the activity with full enthusiasm. It was technically supervised by Shallu Magow and Guninder. The activity was performed under the supervision of Neeru Bala, House Master of Pragati House, under the guidance of the management and school Principal Neeru Nayyar and Vice Principal Parveen Saili who appreciated the efforts put in by the students and teachers and sent greetings and warm wishes to all.

Police DAV Public School

Lohri celebrations were held at Police DAV Public School, Jalandhar. Fire was lighted by Dr. Rashmi Vij, Principal, along with the other faculty members. The teachers enjoyed savouring sweets and Lohri special delights. Celebrations of students were limited to virtual mode only.

Kanya Maha Vidyalaya

Kanya Maha Vidyalaya celebrated the festival of Lohri with fervour and enthusiasm. The celebrations commenced with the address of Principal Prof. Dr Atima Sharma Dwivedi. During her address, Prof Dwivedi extended her Lohri wishes to each and every member of KMV family. On this occasion, college also distributed clothes and other essentials to the helping staff of KMV. The PG Department of Music also sang beautiful folk renditions dedicated to the festival of Lohri. The principal lauded the efforts of the whole organising committee for holding the celebrations.

Lohri celebrated with women prisoners

Hoshiarpur: Secretary District Legal Services Authority Aparajita Joshi visited the Central Jail, Hoshiarpur. Prisoners were made aware of their legal rights at the Legal Aid Clinic. The Secretary District Legal Services Authority also celebrated Lohri with the women detainees. She said from Thursday onwards, everybody should adopt a healthy mindset and whenever after getting out of the jail, should think of living a good life.

She asked the women detainees to wear masks, use sanitisers, keep a distance of at least 6 feet from each other.— OC

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