Ashadhi Beej

Ashadhi Beej is celebrated as the traditional New Year of the Kutchi community. It arrives with the early monsoon, when the dry landscape of Kutch begins to change and farming communities look toward rain, sowing and a fresh agricultural season. Several local historical traditions explain how the day came to be treated as the beginning of the Kutchi year; accounts connect it with older rulers of Kutch and with the region's habit of reading the monsoon as a sign of renewal. Whatever version is followed, the living tradition is strongly tied to Kutch's environment and identity. Families exchange New Year greetings, prepare festive food such as lapsi, visit temples and begin the season with hopes for good rainfall and prosperity. For Kutchi people living outside the region as well, Ashadhi Beej remains an important cultural link with their homeland, language and monsoon-based way of life.

Ashadhi Beej is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.

The wind is watched on the morning: its direction is read for the rain the year will bring, and the reading is taken seriously enough to be printed. Kutchi families greet each other, and the day is a public holiday in Kutch and nowhere else in Gujarat.

Kutch and the Kutchi diaspora keep it as the year's beginning; the rest of Gujarat begins at Bestu Varas in Kartik. The same tithi is Rath Yatra at Puri and in Ahmedabad.