Basant Panchami – Enjoy the vibrance of the Spring Festival

One of the most popular spring festivals, Basant Panchami is celebrated across every part of the country with fervor and fun. The festival marks the end of the winter season and welcomes the spring season. This year, the festival of Basant Panchami will be celebrated on 15th February.

The festival of Basant Panchami is associated with yellow color, a color of spirituality. The color holds a special meaning for this celebration, as it signifies bright yellow sunshine, the brilliance of nature, and the vibrancy of life. During this season, the fields in the countryside, especially the rural areas of Punjab, are brightened with the yellow color of the mustard crop, which adds to the spirit of the festival. As a part of the traditional celebrations, people wear yellow colored clothes, cook Kesar halwa or sweet rice with saffron and offer yellow flowers to God.

• Kheer
  Kheer is a pudding, made by boiling milk with a generous amount of dry fruits and edible goodies make this dish delicious. It is typically served during a meal or as a dessert. It also has many varieties that are not as thick as Kheer, they are known as meetha bhaat, payasam, payasa, dudhpak, etc.
• Khichdi
  Khichdi is a dish made from rice and lentils (dal). Khichdi also is known as Khichadi or Khichuri it is nutritious and light food that’s most commonly eaten all over India.

  It is even offered as Prasada during the festivals like Durga puja, kali puja, Saraswati puja. In West Bengal it is known as Bhog, mostly served with kheer and mix veg during festivals.

• Boondi
  Boondi or Bundiy is one of the deities’ favorites because boondi is a widely offered Prasada during the spring festival. Boondi is an Indian dessert made from sweetened, fried chickpea flour.
  From Boondi, boondi laddu is made, the fried boondi is dipped in sugar syrup.
• Rajbhog
  Rajbhog is a popular Bengali dessert, cousin of the rasgulla. Rajbhog is similar in looks like rasgulla but it’s yellow-er in color. Rajbhog is made with cottage cheese (chena) and a mix of crushed dry fruits and Kesar stuffed inside the cottage cheese dumplings.
• Sweet Rice
  Rice is a staple food for so many people globally. This sweet rice dish consists of boiled sticky rice blended well in aromatic spices. This Sweet Rice recipe is nothing but flavored rice from north India which prepares in very less time because of its fuss-free ingredients.

Over to you.
It is a perfect dish that can be served on any occasion. You won’t be disappointed by the result! Celebrate the festival of Saraswati Puja with all the flavor and fun, wear yellow and bloom like mustard fields, fly kites and soar into the sky like them, welcome the spring season and shed lethargy and burn evils like Holika. Happy Basant Panchami to all!