Gudi Padwa / Ugadi 2014

On the Shukla Pratipada of Chaitra, the first day of the Hindu lunar year, usually in late March or early April. It also opens Chaitra Navratri. This year's date is shown above.

The gudi — a bright cloth on a bamboo topped with an upturned pot, neem and mango leaves — is a flag of victory and welcome, raised for the new year and, in tradition, for Rama's return to Ayodhya. It is worshipped and lowered by sunset.

Taking the bitter neem with sweet jaggery at the year's first meal is an acceptance of both the bitter and the sweet the year will bring, and has a seasonal logic — neem cools and purifies the blood as the summer heat begins.

They are the same day — the Chaitra Shukla Pratipada new year — kept as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and the Konkan and as Ugadi in Karnataka, Andhra and Telangana, with regional customs.