ಬೊಹಾಗ್ ಬಿಹು | Bohag Bihu

Bohag Bihu, also called Rongali Bihu, is the new year of Assam and its festival of spring. Bohag is the Assamese name of the first solar month, which the Bengali calendar calls Boishakh and which begins after the sun enters Mesha, so the festival falls in the middle of April. It is the first of the three Bihus of the Assamese year: Bohag Bihu at the start of the sowing season, Kati Bihu in the autumn, and Magh Bihu, the harvest festival, in January.

The days of Bihu

Bohag Bihu is not one day but a run of days, often counted as seven. The order and names of the later days vary between accounts, but the first two are fixed.

• Goru Bihu, the Bihu of the cattle, on the last day of the old year. The cattle are taken to the water and bathed with mah-haladhi, a paste of black gram and turmeric, swatted lightly with dighloti and makhiyati leaves to drive off flies, and fed bottle gourd and brinjal.
• Manuh Bihu, the Bihu of people, on the first of Bohag, the new year itself. People bathe with turmeric, put on new clothes and seek the blessing of their elders, to whom they present the gamosa, the red and white handwoven cloth of Assam, as the bihuwan, the Bihu gift.
• Gosai Bihu, when the images of the household deities are cleaned and worshipped and prayers are held at the namghar.
• Kutum Bihu, for visiting relatives and eating together, followed in many accounts by Senehi Bihu, Mela Bihu, with fairs and community events, and Chera Bihu, which closes the festival.

Through these days groups of husori singers go from house to house singing and blessing each household, and are given food or small gifts in return. Bihu songs and the Bihu dance, to the dhol, are performed by the young in the open. Pitha, rice cakes, larus and the light foods called jolpan are prepared and exchanged between households.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina gives Bohag Bihu on Bohag 1, which is Manuh Bihu, the new year’s day. It uses the same rule as for Pohela Boishakh: when the sun enters Mesha between sunrise and midnight, the month begins on the following day, and when after midnight, on the day after that. Bohag 1 is thus the day after the calendar date of the Mesha sankranti, and Goru Bihu, the last day of the old year, is the day before the date Anudina shows. For 2027 Anudina gives Bohag 1 as 15 April. Bohag Bihu appears in Anudina under the North Indian custom, and for readers on the South Indian custom when festivals of other regions are shown.

The same sun elsewhere

Bohag Bihu is one of the solar new years kept at Mesha sankranti across India: Pohela Boishakh in Bengal, Vishu in Kerala and Puthandu in Tamil Nadu. Because they follow the sun, they stay close to the same April date year after year, and differ among themselves only by the day that each region’s rule makes the first of the month. Karnataka’s new year, Ugadi, is a different kind of day: it is the first tithi of the lunar month Chaitra, follows the moon, and comes earlier in the spring on a date that moves from year to year. Both are new years, measured by two different clocks.