March
Phool Dei
On the first day of the month of Chaitra, the children of Kumaon go door to door scattering flowers and rice on each threshold, singing for the household's good fortune — and are sent off with jaggery and blessings.
All festivalsPhool Dei
/ phool day /फूल देई
flower-threshold — the spring festival of flowers, kept by the children of the hills.
Phool Dei marks the start of spring and the Kumaoni new year. As the buransh and plum blossom open across the slopes, children gather wildflowers — buransh, peach, mustard — in little baskets and carry them from house to house. At each doorstep they lay flowers and rice and sing the old refrain, ‘Phool dei, chhamma dei, denali dwar, bhar bhakar…’ — a wish for the home to stay full and blessed through the year.
In return, every household gives the children jaggery (gud), coins, sweets, or freshly made singal and puri. It's a festival that belongs entirely to the young — gentle, unhurried, and one of the most distinctly Kumaoni days of the whole year. Stay with us through late March and the children will fold you right into it.
Flowers at the threshold
Children scatter buransh, peach and mustard blossom with rice on each doorstep.
Gud & singal
Households give jaggery, coins and fresh singal and puri in return.
A song for the home
The old ‘Phool dei, chhamma dei’ refrain, sung for the household's year ahead.
