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What Does the First Lohri Mean for a Newly Married Couple?

The Significance of the Festival

Source www.google.com

Primarily celebrated as a harvest festival in most parts of Northern India as Lohri, the festival has its roots originally in Punjab, marking the end of winters and welcoming the seasons of abundance, spring and a new prosperous year. The night of the festival is looked upon as the longest night of the year, after which the days turn longer and nights become shorter.

Lohri is basically a social festival, celebrated amongst family, friends and relatives, especially in the farmers’ community. On this festival, a huge bonfire’s lit around which everyone gathers, sing and dance, performing rituals of throwing jiggery, sesame seeds, sugarcane sticks, popcorns and other sweets that are popular in winters into the holy fire to the beats of the Dhol and Bhangra dance. People dress up in bright colors to mark the festivities.

A New Bride's First Lohri

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The festival is extra special for a new wedded couple and especially for the bride, where she carry new clothes, colorful bangles and decks up just like her wedding day (well nearly!) and giving her company is her husband with his new attire and a colorful turban. The bride is gifted with clothes, jewelry, cosmetics and sweets and the couple celebrate Lohri with their entire family, friends and relatives on a large scale. Once the rituals are over, Lohri is celebrated with traditional dancing and singing around the bonfire. The bride too is expected to exchange gifts with her new family and seek the blessings of the elders with her husband for a happy married life.

Getting An Appropriate Lohri Gift

As it is true for any other festival, Lohri too is an occasion for celebrations and gift giving and receiving. Any festival in India is incomplete without sweets and hence the ideal gift to give on Lohri can be an assortment of different kinds of sugary delights in addition to Lohri special rewaris, gachaks.

New clothes are equally important and as such an ethnic ensemble is much recommended as gifts on Lohri. Artistic Puja Thalis are popular choices these days for gifts, that come in handy during all religious ceremonies and offerings. A mixed bag of dry fruits or readymade Lohri special dry fruit hampers are also useful and recommended for festivities along with flowers, fresh fruits, jewellery and or electronic appliances.

Lohri Gift Ideas for a Newly Married Couple

Bed Linen & Quilt Set

Source www.jaipurfabric.com

Made of pure cotton, this vibrant Rajasthani bedsheet is a handcrafted block print double bed sized sheet with two matching pillow covers. The set has a thread count of 120 and measures 225 cm (88.5 inch) X 274 cm (107.8 inch) approx. in bed sheet, while for pillows it measures 43.18 cm (17 inches) x 68.58 cm (27 inches) (±5%) approx. The double bed sheet is priced at Rs. 1,399. Pair it up with a lovely Red floral Shaneel Double Bed quilt made of high quality compact yarn fabric, with handcrafted Sanganeri block print. It is a double stitched quilt with machine stitched borders and is very soft, warm and light weight priced at Rs. 2,699.

Personalized Ceramic Planters Set

Source www.igp.com

This set of two beautiful planters that are personalized will make the newlyweds’ surrounding green and fresh. The planters are white in color and can be personalized with either of their names for special effects on one planter and a new year wish on the other. The planters set has one planter measuring 2.8in X 2.8in X 3in (l x b x h), and the other measuring 4.3in X 4.3in X 4.5in (l x b x h) in ceramic with a modern theme. The set is priced at Rs. 495.

Dinner Set

Source www.pepperfry.com

The Mimosa White Opalware Dinner Set from the Larah series by Borosil comes with 21 pieces, including full plates of 27cms, quarter plates of 18cms, a vegetable bowl of 11.5cms, a serving bowl of 20.5cms. The dinner set is 100% food grade, with toughened glass and is 100% microwave & dishwasher safe. It has a mirror finish and is break, chip & scratch resistant apt for daily use. The dinner set is priced at Rs. 1,991.

Lohri Special Basket Hamper

Source www.amazon.in

The Lohri Special Basket Hamper from Ghastiaram is a rectangular special hamper that includes 200gms of Till Ladoo, a box of Lohri special Khajoor of 200 gms, 200gms of Gud Revari, 200gms of Til Gachak and a foldable & reusable kite with a spool string to celebrate Lohri in a special way. The kite measures 12x24” and the hamper weighs 800gms, priced at Rs. 1,306.

Watch Set

Source revoguewatch.com

This couple watch set from the Revogue Collection is water resistant, have movement quartz, with a stainless steel back case and analog display. The set has a sapphire glass and is from a limited series with a case thickness of 38mm and band width of 35mm. The case shape is round and model year is 2017. The couple watch set is priced at Rs. 1,990.

Lohri Sweets Hamper

Source www.gifts2indiaonline.com

Convey your love and care by presenting this special Chocolate - Dry fruits- Sweets gift hamper to the newly weds. This thoughtful sweets hamper includes 200 gms each of cashews, almonds, pista and raisins, 500gms of Motichoor Laddu, a box of 16 pieces of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, all priced at Rs. 2,199.

Fresh Fruits & Flowers Basket

Source www.arenaflowers.co.in

The nature health basket is a delicious way of welcoming the couple to a beautiful life of love, happiness and celebrations. The gift basket features the best assortment of luxury fruits on the day of your order, paired with a beautifully decorated bunch of classic purple stem orchids. The basket is all of 3kgs with 6 orchid stems and a special message card. It is priced at Rs. 1,927. You can choose to further customize the basket by adding a cake or other accompaniments at an additional charge.

Traditional Wall Painting with Hanging Lantern

Source www.amazon.in

Gift this beautiful and ethnic golden colored hanging lantern with red panels along with a ragini silk painting to the new couple for Lohri. The lantern is made of a copper base with intricate work at the light source, where the candle is placed inside the lamp. It measures 9.5in X 3in X 3in (l x b x h) and can be hung on the wall or from the ceiling. It is priced at Rs. 870. To keep the traditional theme going for their in house décor, pair the lantern with a Purple Ragini Silk Painting of Radha and Krishna made with water colors in a portrait form, measuring 13.6in X 10in (height x width). The beautiful painting is priced at Rs. 625.

Assorted Katlis Box

Source www.giftalove.com

This beautiful and ethnically decorated box contains an assortment of Pure Kaju Katlis, Kesari Katlis, Strawberry Katlis and Pista Katlis made from the best cashews from Goa, weighing 500gms. The sweets are priced at Rs. 899 and will be lip smacking for the new couple on their first Lohri festival.

Gold Plated Serving Set

Source www.igp.com

Make them feel like royalty with this regal gift of classy bowl set, designed beautifully in gold plating. The serving set is intricately styled with a floral pattern with gold plating on most part of the set, with a silver coated center on the bowls. This designer set includes a serving tray, two serving bowls and two spoons, all priced at Rs. 600.

Bonus: Quick Tips To Celebrate Lohri

Lohri is all about community festivities and an occasion where everyone from the family, friends, relatives and the entire village gather together to celebrate the harvest. Dancing to the traditional beats of the dhol around a huge bonfire, throwing lohri special food items as a mark of celebration is considered an auspicious omen. When celebrating Lohri, it’s good to know the significance of each special ritual you perform as part of the festival to understand it, relish and enjoy it more!

  • Tilohri
    Inspired by the word which refers to sesame and jaigery, Lohri’s tradition has some specific delicacies as part of the celebrations like jaggery, gajak, til ki chikki, which are not only offered to the holy fire as a mark of expressing one’s gratitude to Mother nature, but also consumed and considered body cleansers renewing the body for the new year.

  • Bonfire
    The bonfire is symbolic of Lord Agni, the God of Fire, which is why various food items are offered into the fire to seek blessings of prosperity and happiness from God. As people encircle around the bonfire and walk around it, they can expect manifold blessings in return for good days ahead and miracles happening around them and in their lives.

  • Winter food
    Since the festival is all about celebrating the winter harvest, it is a ritual to consume winter food which includes a traditional serving of sarson ka saag and makki roti with a generous drop of ghee or butter, til ki barfi, makhane ki kheer. The festival also is a time to bid adieu to the gloomy winter and welcome bright sunny days, wherein right after Lohri, Makar Sankranti is celebrated and jaggery and sesame seeds are consumed. Besides the above food items, the Lohri celebrations menu could be a mix of chicken and paneer dishes, with some corn starters, lassi or sugarcane juice, jaljeera, hot almond or saffron milk in small earthen pots, along with winter desserts like gulab jamun, phirni or rabdi jalebi and hot malpuas with pista and rabdi.

  • Vibrant home decor
    Traditional décor entails painted earthen pots, colorful paper pinwheels, hand painted bottles to add color to Lohri festivities. Colorful dupattas can also be added to the décor, used as backdrops, draped around the pillars or as tablecloths. They can also be embellished with little bells or gota lace for an interesting visual appeal. Popular everyday items like hay and charpol bethaks are used as props or for décor and seating. Cheap and visually appealing hay can help balance the bright colors, and the charpols can be adorned with colorful parandis for picture taking sessions.

  • Kites
    This is also also known as the season to fly kites and there are many small kites available in the market these days, which can be used not only for flying but also for décor.

  • Lohri gifts and return gifts
    Just like any other festival or special occasion, Lohri too witnesses a fair share of gifts exchange, which may include baskets of fruits, auspicious blessings in the form of clothes, money, jewelry, dry fruits, Lohri specific sweets and other assorted food delicacies. A typical Lohri giveaway is a hamper of the festive essentials like popcorn, gajak, rewari and groundnuts. Combine it all with a modern twist and come up with peanut butter cupcakes, packing them creatively and pair them up with some miniature kites, dryfuits or silverware as takeaways for the guests.

  • Music and dance
    The Lohri celebration are incomplete without the customary Dhol, which can make a non-dancer also shake his legs and arms through the night! You can hire Punjabi singers who sing folk songs or invite your elders to dish out some songs from their golden days and have everyone grooving.

  • Clothes
    A lohri them duo demands ethnic style of dressing, hence a Punjabi ensemble of Patiala salwars, short kurtis paired with phulkari dupattas and parandis with juttis or morjaris are classic for women, while a Punjabi or pathani kurta with salwar and juttis for men is appropriate.

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From our editorial team

Make This Lohri Special

Celebrate this festival of prosperity, joy and sharing with your wife and family in a way that they always remember its importance throughout their lives. It is the first Lohri of your wife with you so make it as special as she is for you because she will remember this throughout her life.