culture

Celebration of Fuldai i.e. worshipping the Threshold.

A local festival confined to the hilly regions of
Uttarakhand. On 14 of March invariably, kids in hills visit the thresholds of
the houses in their vicinity to worship them sprinkling petals of profusely
flowering rhododendrons mixed with vermillion powder, grains of rice and
jiggery. While doing so they enchant a line in local dialect- fuldai,
chammadai, den-dwar bhar-bhakar. (O, you benevolent threshold forgive us for
our wrongs, let thy doors favour us and the granary be full of seasonal crops.)
Equating this festival with  celebrations
in the honour of the Goddess Flora in ancient Rome scholars in this hoary
festivity hear the echoes of Kessite-Assyrian rule in hills in remote past.