Dubai: Telugu-speaking people in the UAE ushered in Ugadi (New Year) on Monday in a traditional manner. Many of them visited the temple in Dubai early in the morning to pray for happiness and prosperity in the coming year.
Ugadi, which means beginning of an era, is derived from the Sanskrit words ‘yug’ (era) and ‘adi’ (beginning). The Telugu calendar has a cycle of 60 years and each of the years has a name. The current year is named Jaya, which means victory.
While Ugadi is celebrated in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, in Maharashtra the same day is celebrated as Gudipadva.
The festival falls on the first new moon after the Sun crosses equator from south to north in the Spring equinox corresponding to the first bright fortnight of the month of Chaitra, which generally fall in the months of March or April as per the lunar calendar.
A day before the festival people clean their houses and decorate the doors with mango leaves. On Ugadi they wake up early in the morning and massage their head with sesame oil and take a bath and wear new clothes.
Women prepare special recipes such as Ugadi pachadi and puran poli. The pachadi is a mixture of neem flower, raw mango, tamarind juice, pepper, jaggery and salt symbolising a mixture of ups and downs and happiness and sadness in life so as to prepare themselves to take them all in their stride.
The main feature of Ugadi is the panchanga pathanam or the reading of the almanac that predicts the year ahead. Timely arrival of monsoon, good rainfall and a bumper harvest is forecast for the current year. Rise in prices of essential commodities, including petrol and diesel, are also predicted.
A grand event to mark Ugadi has been planned by the Telugu community in the UAE at Shaikh Rashid Auditorium in Dubai. Panchangam will be recited by an expert from Andhra Pradesh.
