Goru Bihu Festival The cattle day that opens the seven days of Bohag Bihu, kept on the last day of the outgoing Assamese year.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Goru Bihu
- हिन्दी
- गरु बिहू
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The cattle day that opens the seven days of Bohag Bihu, kept on the last day of the outgoing Assamese year. The cows and buffaloes are taken to the river, rubbed with black gram paste and turmeric and struck lightly with dighalati and makhiyati sprigs while a rhyme tells them to eat the herbs and grow strong and to leave the old year behind; their old ropes are burnt and new ones put on. In the evening they are brought back to a house swept clean and given pitha and a fresh halter.
- Deity
- Gomatha, Pashupati
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The Mesha sankranti day, the last day of Sot, because the Assamese month begins the day after the ingress; the bathing is in the morning and the new rope is put on at dusk.
The fast
No fast is kept. Pitha, laru and curd are made for the days that follow, and the cattle are fed first from them.
Where the regions differ
Assam keeps the cattle on the first of its seven Bihu days; Tamil Nadu keeps Mattu Pongal and the Telugu country Kanuma on the same instinct at their own harvest in January instead.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.