Q1.
Many of our festivals are connected with seasons. See if you can match these festivals to the season they are celebrated in! 1. Pongal, Makar Sankranti 2. Holi 3. Diwali 4. Baisakhi, Gudi Padwa, Vishu, Rongali Bihu — with — (a) Spring — when flowers bloom (b) Autumn — after crops are harvested (c) New year and harvest festival (d) Winter
Answer
1 → (d) 2 → (a) 3 → (b) 4 → (c)
| S.No. | Festival | Answer | Season | Why it matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Pongal, Makar Sankranti | (d) | Winter | They fall in the middle of January, the coldest part of the year. Til laddu, gajak, gur and khichdi are eaten to keep warm, and kites are flown in the clear winter sky. |
| 2. | Holi | (a) | Spring — when flowers bloom | Holi comes at the full moon of Phalguna, in February or March, just when the palash and semal are in flower and the fields are yellow with mustard. The colours of Holi are the colours of spring. |
| 3. | Diwali | (b) | Autumn — after crops are harvested | Diwali falls in October or November, after the kharif crop has been cut and brought home. The barns are full, so it is a time to light lamps and celebrate. |
| 4. | Baisakhi, Gudi Padwa, Vishu, Rongali Bihu | (c) | New year and harvest festival | All four fall in the middle of April. They mark the new year in Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala and Assam, and they also celebrate the cutting of the rabi harvest. |
Why our festivals sit on the seasons: For hundreds of years almost everyone in India lived by farming. The big moments of the year were sowing and harvesting, and those moments are fixed by the weather. So the festivals grew up around them — a festival when the crop is safely home, a festival when the year turns, a festival when the flowers come back. Our calendar of festivals is really a calendar of the seasons.
Look carefully at 1 and 4: Both are harvest festivals, so both could seem to fit (c). The difference is that Pongal and Makar Sankranti fall in January, in the cold — so they go with Winter. Baisakhi, Gudi Padwa, Vishu and Rongali Bihu fall in April and are also the new year in their regions — so they go with (c).