Harela

The most genuinely Uttarakhandi festival in the calendar, and the one the state has taken up as its own environmental day.

It marks the arrival of the monsoon and the start of sowing, and doubles as a practical germination test of the seed a household has in store.

Ten days beforehand, women sow five to seven kinds of grain in a basket of soil kept indoors and water it. On the day the pale yellow-green shoots are cut and tucked behind the ears of family members. Tree planting has become part of the day since the state adopted it as an environmental observance.

Grain is sown exactly ten days ahead and cut on the day; the shoots are worn behind the ear rather than offered at a shrine.

The strength of the shoots is read as a sign of how the season's crop will fare.

A hill agricultural rite of the Kumaon sowing season, later adopted by the state — 16 July was made a public holiday in 2020 and is now marked with mass tree planting.