Unknown history of the Lohri Festival

Unlike most of our festivals like Diwali, Navratri or Holi, the festival of Lohri falls on January 13 every year. This Punjabi festival is a calendar-date based celebration, not a ‘tihti’ or ‘muhurt’ based one. Most people think Lohri is just a day of fun to celebrate the end of the harsh Northern winter. But Lohri has a fascinating legend behind it, known and celebrated by Punjabis till date.  

Why did Lohri start?  
Most of us think that Lohri is associated with the harvest of the rabi crops. The traditional time to harvest sugarcane is January. Besides, Punjabi farmers see the day after Lohri (Maghi) as their financial New Year. But that is not all.  

During the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, there lived a man called Abdullah Bhatti, shortened to Dulla Bhatti. Just like Robin Hood, Dulla Bhatti stole from the rich, and rescued poor Punjabi girls from getting kidnapped for human trafficking. He then arranged their marriages to boys of the village, and provided them with dowries from the stolen money.  

One day, a poor Brahmin came to Dulla for help. He had two beautiful daughters, Sundari and Mundari, already betrothed. He was too poor to afford the weddings, and to add to his trouble, the local Mughal officials were planning to kidnap the girls.    

Dulla vowed he would ensure the safe wedding of the girls to their selected husbands. Instead of stealing, Dulla started a donation campaign. Villagers contributed jaggery, grains and clothes instead of money. Dulla then lit huge bonfires along the path between the two homes for safe passage and got the weddings done.   

How is this legend celebrated in Lohri now?  
This is the real reason why Lohri has bonfires till date, and gur rewri, peanuts, popcorn, grain dishes and gur sweets are eaten. Punjabis sing the famous folksong Sundar-Mundriye, re-telling this story. Punjabi villagers eat gajjak, sarson da saag and makki di roti on Lohri. It is also tradition to eat 'til rice', sweet rice made with jaggery and sesame seeds (til). Lohri is a very interesting example how agricultural traditions and a legend have merged.