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Ugadi is simply the New Year’s Day celebration for the people in Deccan region of India.

There are different ways of celebrating Ugadi. The Telugu and Kannada people celebrate the event with fanfare and gatherings of the extended family. Their celebration starts with ritual showers then prayers and eating of mixture of neem buds or flowers for bitterness, jaggery that symbolizes for sweetness, raw mango for Vagaru, tamarind juice for sour, salt for salty and green pepper for hotness.

In Maharashtra, the celebration is called “Gudi Padwa” and it represents the advent of the year. Gudi is a kind of bamboo decorated with a colored silk cloth and a beautiful garland goblet atop it. It symbolizes victory or achievement for the Maharashtra people. The New Year then is ushered with the worship of the Gudi and also the distribution of the “Prasad” which is composed of neem leaves, gram-pulse, and jaggery.

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