Indian New Year's Days

Published 2017-Apr-14 Updated 2017-May-15

(புத்தாண்டு உணவுகள், Varusha Pirappu, Ugadi, Vishu)

In India, new year is celebrated on different dates in different regions. The new year according to the Gregorian calendar i.e. January 1st, is widely celebrated throughout India as in other countries. The Christians in India celebrate this as the beginning of the new year.

However majority of the population also celebrate the new year according to the lunar calender or solar calender. The New Year of the muslims, known as Hijri has dates that vary each year which I have explained below. The New Year celebrated in different states also have different dates but most of them fall in the month of April. The dates of celebration fall into few main categories.

The first set of states follow the solar calender and celebrate their new year when the Sidereal Equinox starts. This falls exactly on April 14th every year and is celebrated by Tamilnadu, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab and Assam.
The second category also follow the solar calender and starts on the tropical equinox that falls on March 21st. This day is celebrated as New Year by the Parsi community around the world.
The third new year celebrated by many North Indian states follow the lunar calender. Here the new year starts on the full moon day following the equinox and is known as Holi. This is celebrated by states like Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.
Another set of states also follow the lunar calender by the new year starts on the new moon day following the equinox. This is followed by states like Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa and Manipur.
The exceptions are Gujaratis who celebrate their new year on Diwali which falls on an autumm new moon day.

Below I have briefed about the new year celebrations from different regions and the specific food prepared during that day. I have listed them in alphabetical order.