How Ugadi is celebrated
people begin with preparation of the festival well in advance and the day starts with taking a head bath before break of dawn. They also wear new and traditional clothes and prepare a special dish called ‘ Ugadi Pachadi’ for relatives and friends. The dish is made using some seasonal ingredients including raw mango, neem, jaggery, tamarind and also has chilly and salt in it.
These different ingredients signify varied flavors of life such as happiness, sorrow, anger, bitterness, surprise and fear. The dish is eaten on this special day to remind ourselves about life and the verity of emotions that comes along. The idea is to learn how to stay composed during all these phases of emotion.
Ugadi celebration also includes an almanac reading out of ‘panchangam’ by the eldest member of the family or a learned priest, who typically makes predictions for the upcoming year. The predictions are made out of the moon signs.