Mountain awakes to the calls to invite crows during \u2018Ghughutiya Tyar\u2019 festival<\/p>\n
Prem Prakash Upadhyay “Natural”<\/p>\n
Bageshwar, Jan 15<\/p>\n
The morning of January 14 in Uttarakhand hills reverberated with cheerful voices of children echoing through villages: \u201cKaale kauwa kaale, ghughute ki maala kha le.\u201d Inviting crows to come and eat. The call was not part of a game but was the very soul of \u2018Ghughutiya Tyar\u2019, a traditional folk festival of Uttarakhand.<\/p>\n
Celebrated alongside \u2018Makar Sankranti\u2019, \u2018Ghughutiya Tyar\u2019 was not just a festival for hill children, it was the biggest celebration of the year. \u2018Ghughutes\u2019, made from flour and jaggery and made into garlands with collective participation of the entire family which defined this festival. On the eve of \u2018Sankranti\u2019, hearth fires burned late into the night as families gathered in courtyards and on rooftops, shaping \u2018Ghughutes\u2019 together.<\/p>\n
For children, the charm of \u2018Ghughutiya\u2019 went just far beyond taste. The shapes crafted of \u2018Ghughutes\u2019\u2014pomegranate flowers and Jatar for girls, swords and damru (small drums) for boys\u2014gave form to their imaginations. Each child carefully decided in advance how many \u2018Ghughutes\u2019 would adorn their garland.<\/p>\n
The most distinctive tradition of this festival is its association with the crow. It was believed that the crow must eat the \u2018Ghughutes\u2019 first, only then would the family take their meal. In the biting cold of January, children would bathe and set out early in the morning to call the crow. Perhaps it was the only day of the year when the cold was accepted without complaint.<\/p>\n
Once the crow had eaten, another \u201ccompetition\u201d starts\u2014how to preserve the \u2018Ghughutes\u2019 for as many days as possible. Some hide their garlands, others bargained with siblings, and eventually the\u2019 Ghughutes\u2019 became the cause of playful quarrels and laughter.<\/p>\n
Today, amid mobile phones, television, and modern lifestyles, the vibrancy of \u2018Ghughutiya Tyar\u2019 is fading. Migration from the hills has further confined the festival. Yet, \u2018Ghughutiya Tyar\u2019 continues to live on in the collective memory of the hill folks \u2014reminding them\u00a0 of a time when festivals were born not from markets, but from relationships and shared labor.<\/p>\n
According to a folk legend, there once lived a king named \u2018Ghughut\u2019. An astrologer foretold that he would be killed by crows on the morning of \u2018Makar Sankranti\u2019. To avert this fate, the king devised a plan. He announced throughout the kingdom that people should prepare special delicacies made of flour mixed with jaggery and send their children to call crows to their homes. The sweets were instructed to be shaped like snakes so that the crows would swoop down on them quickly.<\/p>\n
Thus, \u2018Ghughutiya Tyar\u2019 is, in essence, the story of a mountain childhood that time has left behind but one that has not been erased from the memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mountain awakes to the calls to invite crows during \u2018Ghughutiya Tyar\u2019 festival Prem Prakash Upadhyay “Natural” Bageshwar, Jan 15 The morning of January 14 in Uttarakhand hills reverberated with cheerful voices of children echoing through villages: \u201cKaale kauwa kaale, ghughute ki maala kha le.\u201d Inviting crows to come and eat. The call was not part …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,33,1284,91,59],"tags":[3720,319,3722,3721],"class_list":["post-7909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-international-political-national","category-national","category-uttarakhand","tag-ghughutiya-tyar-festival","tag-bageshwar","tag-hill-fesstival","tag-uttaarakhand"],"yoast_head":"\n