New Year's story

Among the peoples of India, New Year usually falls in March or April. During these months, people in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka in southern India celebrate the arrival of the New Year. The first month of the new year is Chaitra Masa. In the Kashmiri calendar, Navre festival is celebrated in March–April of the New Year. This sacred day of Kashmiri Brahmins has been celebrated for thousands of years. Padwa is celebrated as the first day of the Hindu year by the people of Maharashtra, India and Sanskar Padwa is celebrated in Goa. This day falls in March-April and coincides with Ugadi. The Sitkha festival of Cheti Chand is celebrated on the same day as Ugadi/Gudi Padwa to mark the celebration of the Sindhi New Year. The Thelemic New Year on March 20 (or, according to some accounts, April 8) is usually celebrated with an invocation to Ra-Hur-Khuit, commemorating the beginning of the New Aeon in 1904. It also marks the beginning of the twenty-two-day Thelemic holy season, which ends on the third day of the writing of the Book of the Law. Kalasha Pathans celebrate their chaumus, which marks the beginning of their year in Pakistan's Chitral and parts of India. The Marwari New Year (Tapna) is celebrated on the day of the Diwali festival, which is the last day of Krishna Paksha in the month of Ashwin and also the last day of the month of Ashwin in the Hindu calendar. Gujarati New Year (Bestu/Nao Varas) is celebrated the day after the festival of Diwali (which falls in mid-autumn – either October or November, depending on the lunar calendar). Gujarati New Year is synonymous with Sood Ekam, which is the first day of Shukla Paksha in the month of Kartik, which is considered the first day of the first month of the Gujarati lunar calendar. Most other Hindus celebrate New Year in early spring. The Gujarati community all over the world celebrates the New Year after Diwali to mark the beginning of a new financial year. “The specificity of India since the time of the Aryan (Indo-European) invasion has been the dominance of the communal-caste social structure sanctified by Hinduism. Hindus all over the world celebrate their main holiday, the Diwali festival (compare Russian “divo”, “wonder”, “maiden”, Czech and Slovak “divadlo” – “theater”, Czech and Slovak hudba – “music”) , is the most significant in Hinduism. Diwali is celebrated as the “Festival of Lights” and symbolizes the victory of good over evil and candles and lanterns are lit everywhere to mark this victory. The main theme of the festival decorations is glowing lanterns, lights, fireworks and lit candles decorating statues of animals and gods. Diwali usually falls at the end of October – beginning of November, in this it is somewhat reminiscent of the ancient pagan autumn harvest festivals celebrated among Indo-European peoples in the fall. In modern India, Diwali is considered to be a New Year's holiday, although it has different interpretations in different regions of the country. Apart from India itself, Diwali is widely celebrated wherever there are large Hindu communities. In ancient times, people, like modern children, “marveled” at theatrical performances, perceived them as real phenomena, where musicians “buzzed” on pipes and musical instruments” (Tikhomirov A.E., Tikhomirova G.M., Migrations of Indo-Europeans. Indians – Indo-Europeans "Ridero", Ekaterinburg, 2018, p. 37).

The people of Sikkim celebrate their new year called Losar. The Hindu Baloch in Pakistan and India celebrate their new year, called Bej Roh, in the month of Daardan in their Saaldar calendar. New Year (Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu) is celebrated on April 14 or 15 in the Indian state of Assam. Tamil New Year (Puthandu) is celebrated in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the first of Chitrai (April 13, 14 or 15). In the temple city of Madurai, Chitrai Thiruvizha is celebrated at the Meenakshi Temple. There is also a huge exhibition called Chitrai Porutkaatchi. It is also called Chitrai Vishu in some parts of Southern Tamil Nadu. In Hindu homes, this day is celebrated with a festival and the entrances of the houses are elaborately decorated with kolams. New Year is celebrated on the 1st of Boishak (April 14 or 15) in Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura. New Year (Vishuva Sankranti) is celebrated on April 14 in the Indian state of Odisha. It is also called Vishuva Sankranti or Pana Sankranti. New Year or Cheyruba is celebrated on April 14 in the Indian state of Manipur with a lot of festivities and revels.