This Gregorian year started with my dad’s star birthday (Margazhi month, Uthiradam Star) and Ashwin and Kripa’s son was born on Jan 1 as well… what a great start to the Gregorian year. We celebrated the start of 2025 with Usha, Rangaraj, Gayatri and Ananya at Cafe Varanasi near Brookefields mall, Coimbatore. Despite trying to remember that we had to take pictures, we didnt :). It was particularly nice to meet Ananya, whom we had met as a little girl. Narayanan couldn’t join us as he had some work. Post lunch, we all came back home as Gayatri wanted to meet Amma. So another round of fun conversations and the year began on a great note.
Vikram Samvat 2082, the Hindu New Year was on March 30th. Gudi Padwa (Maharashtra), Ugadi (Andhra and Telengana) and the Nepalese New Year was celebrated on March 30th. It was also the start of the Chaitra Navratri. This year Rama Navami coincided with my Gregorian birthday on April 6th. Do read – A Memorable Birthday at Eco-Friendly Van Bhoj.
Today is the Puthandu (TamilNadu), Vishu (Kerala), Pana Sankranti (Odisha), Pohela Baishakh (Bengal) and Bohag Bihu (Assam). Punjab celebrated Vaisakhi yesterday. An interesting thing to note is Puthandu or the Tamizh New Year is celebrated in several countries – SriLanka, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia as their new year. We have the Cholas to thank for that because they conquered all these lands.
For the Tamil New Year we make Mango Pachadi particularly because it brings four different tastes together – the sourness of unripe mangoes, the spicy taste of chillies, the sweetness of jaggery and the bitter taste of dried neem flowers. Our festivals are so meaningful and the traditional food related to each of the festivals is based on science.
Which Calendar Do You Follow ?
Sometimes I wonder why we no longer remember the Hindu calendar or the regional calendars and only celebrate the Gregorian one. The Hindu calendar is far more comprehensive and it’s a known fact that Astrology was far advanced in Bharat than any other country in the world. A few centuries of colonialism and our traditional calendar is forgotten. The world using a single calendar for transacting business is definitely convenient, but it doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate our traditional new year.
Interestingly, I am reading this book titled “Geopolitics” by Dr. Ankit Shah and K Siddharth. They give a great explanation about how the current Gregorian calendar became the defacto one across the world.
A few excerpts –
“…. After the invasion of Alexander, the Greeks established their rule over Egypt. King Philadelphos introduced intercalation of one day in every four years for the first time in history, but the Egyptian priests resisted not to follow any type of intercalation. Later, Roman Emperor Julius Ceasar adopted the same method of intercalation of one day in every four years and introduced his reformed calendar in Rome, which came to be known as Julian Calendar.”
Because the Julian calendar had some discrepancies, in 1582 the Gregorian calendar was introduced in England by the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII.
“… Implementing the Gregorian calendar was not easy, and there was resistance from several quarters….”
“….International trade did make countries like England and Germany accept it later on. The Russians implemented it after the revolution in 1917 and Greece in 1923.”
The Gregorian calendar is also flawed and there are suggestions on how to fix it, but that’s for another blogpost and a bigger discussion.
Again interestingly the Gregorian calendar is not in use in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan.
“….Countries like China, Thailand, Japan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and North Korea use an amended version, while in Israel, Bangladesh and India multiple calendars are used, along with the Gregorian version.”
Fascinating stuff, right ?
Well, we have recently started to celebrate our birthdays as per the Hindu calendar as well as the Gregorian calendar… hey, I get to wear two new sarees :).
My Hindu birthday fell on March 20th this year coinciding with the Spring equinox and as I mentioned above, my Gregorian birthday fell on April 6th coinciding with Rama Navami. Blessed 🙏🏿.
Have a great year ahead, whichever calendar you follow 🙂