CHIDANU ki SANGRAND (चिडाणु दी सगरांद) - local festival of Kangra

Ok guys hello.. I hope you are doing great.... Last week we celebrated chirdu ki sangrand and I thought of letting the world know what actually it is..

I don't know if it is celebrated in other Himachal districts or not so you can let me know in comments...I will love to add on .... 

As you all know I'm Kangri so here I'm going to explain one and only Kangre di chidanu sangrand..

SANGRAND is actually a Sanskrit word "sankranti" which means the first day of each month of the Indian solar calendar, based on the shifting of sun from one zodiac to another.

Chidanu sangrand is basically celebrated on the Sankranti of the month Ashadha or Aashaadha (आषाढ़) i.e.July to protect animals. 

Now you may ask that what actually is "Chidanu" so here I let you know Chiddan, Chidanu, chichad is a name given to an insect, acarid, tick or flea infesting domestic animals. So during month of June-August it's usually monsoon season in Kangra district and due to heavy  rainfall (humidity) external parasite infestation increases which can cause significant discomfort, decrease in milk yield and a variety of health problems in animals..

Therefore, in older days during month of monsoon many owners of animals use to collect these insects from their bodies and in the evening these were burnt in the forest after mixing with flour cake. After that they use to send their animals for  grazing grass.

This festival was then further celebrated by gathering off all the villagers along with burning of insects in the fire and singing local traditional songs and dancing on them.

Traditionally, it was beleived that after this festival, the animals would not suffer from any disease or any other problem for the whole year. Recently, still in villages old people are following these old traditions and with same enthusiasm they are celebrating this unique hilly culture.

Even today, if we don't own any domestic animals still we celebrate this festival with same energy..

On this day at our own homes, we prepare delicious food like bhatura (fermented fried bread), patrode (colocasia leaves rolled with the chickpea flour batter), potatoes, kheer/halwa and any local vegetable that is available. After offering these delicacies to God and praying him for better future we  distribute these among each other and eat together with the family.

It's really important that we don't forget our local culture and celebrate it more joyfully in one or another way because these are the traditions which make our society unique and we should try to preserve them .

This blog is written after collecting information from my parents few websites.. if you think something is missed or need to be fixed let me know in comment section I will try to incorporate it in this blog.

Keep enjoying your culture and try to maintain its essence..

Till then 

Bye bye 

Yours loving Vet

© Dreamingvet 

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