August
Olgia
Deep in the monsoon, Ghee Sankranti — Olgia — marks the eating of the season's ghee and the old custom of olag, gifts carried from craftsman and farmhand to patron and elder.
All festivalsOlgia
/ ol·gi·a /ओलगिया
Ghee Sankranti — the mid-monsoon day of ghee, when the year's first ghee is eaten and gifts are given.
Olgia, or Ghee Sankranti, falls in mid-August, when the crops are green and the cattle give richly. It is, simply, the festival of ghee: everyone eats it on this day — over chapati, over urad-dal pakori — and the old saying warns, with a smile, that whoever skips it is born a snail in the next life.
It is also the day of olag, the traditional gifts that artisans, shepherds and field-hands once carried to their patrons and elders — garden vegetables, seasonal produce, given in respect and goodwill. A warm, well-fed marker in the middle of the rains.
The day of ghee
The season's ghee eaten by all, over chapati and pakori.
Olag
Gifts of produce carried to patrons and elders in goodwill.
