Phool Dei

One of very few Indian festivals performed almost entirely by children, and the clearest surviving marker of the Himalayan solar new year.

It welcomes spring and opens the hill new year, asking blessing and protection for each household and a good crop in the year ahead.

Children, mostly young girls, go from house to house carrying a plate of flowers, rice, jaggery, coconut and green leaves. At each doorstep they scatter flowers and rice on the threshold and sing the Phool Dei song, and are given jaggery, rice or small coins in return.

Flowers and rice are scattered on the threshold of each house; the children sing and are given jaggery or coins.

The blessing is placed on the doorstep of the house rather than carried inside or taken to a shrine.

A folk observance of the Kumaoni and Garhwali new year, kept in villages rather than temples and passed down through children rather than priests.