Next: 13 Jan 2027
Lohri
The Punjabi winter bonfire night, with sesame, peanuts and gajak, and sarson da saag seasoned with ginger and garlic.
Spices for Lohri
Lohri is celebrated around a bonfire into which sesame, popcorn and jaggery are thrown as an offering. The food of the season is sarson da saag, mustard greens simmered for hours with spinach, then seasoned with ginger, garlic, green chilli and a tempering of dried red chilli, served with makki di roti and white butter. Gajak, rewri and peanuts, each with sesame, round off the evening. A pinch of cumin, coriander and turmeric is in nearly everything.
The spices
Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Lohri" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Ginger: Venkatx5, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Sesame: Anna Frodesiak, CC0, source
- Mustard seed: Pancrat, CC BY-SA 3.0, source