Kudiyan Di Lohri

India is a land of festivities. Every society and culture has its own bundle of celebrations related to’ their’ calendar. One such important festival of Northern India especially Punjab is Lohri which is mostly celebrated on 13th of January every year.

Celebrated at the peak time of winter season, it is marked with fun festivities, parties, dance, music, Marie making and gift exchange activities. People gather at the place of celebration in the best of their traditional wear and exchange greetings. But the basic point is that it is celebrated in the house where a baby Boy is born.

With changing times there has been a need to do some modifications in these festivities. For this reason, our ‘NGO Behetar’ has started with the initiative of celebrating the ‘Birth of Daughter’ in the family. We have been celebrating Lohri in the modified style naming it as “KUDIYAN DI LOHRI” or “BETIYON KI LOHRI”.It is to mark the birth of a daughter in the family

This NGO had started this project on a very small scale and in the year 2017, we had got together to celebrate this at a mass level. We had listed more than 200 baby girls born in the year 2016 who were invited with their parents and grandmother to attend a cultural evening of celebrations at BN market Shalimar Bagh.

We had also invited some prominent ladies of this area who have attained some position in the society due to their efforts and entrepreneurship. These ladies were felicitated for their achievements which were shared and applauded by all.Our NGO exemplified their work in front of the society thus showing all the parents and the grandparents that their daughters can also achieve various heights if given suitable chance.

Our guests, in their address to these parents, urged them to nurture, educate and cherish their daughters.These newborns compared to Maa Durga, Maa Saraswati, Maa Ambey, Maa Laxmi, Maa Annapurna and Maa Kali in different situations.

Along with them, our sponsorers were also felicitated who had generously donated for this cause. Each family of a newborn daughter was gifted with a box of sweets, a Dupatta for the mother and a shawl for the grandmother of the newborns. They were also given some household utility items so that they may remember this as the gifts on the occasion of the birth of their daughter.

This was followed by burning of Lohri, it’s Pooja, festivities and snacks for all. The whole event was attended by more than thousand people of the area and a message of giving respect and honour to the girl child in the society. This was also by associated with PM Narendra Modi’s’ Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’  mission.