Lohri is the warmest festival in the Punjabi calendar — and warmth is the right word in every sense. The bonfire lit after sunset on the night before Makar Sankranti, the throwing of puffed rice and sesame seeds and popcorn into the flames, the circling of the fire with family and neighbors, the songs of the harvest and the season — Lohri is a festival of community, of new life, of the earth completing one turn of its cycle. If your family gathers around the Lohri bonfire every January, you are participating in one of the oldest fire-celebration traditions in the subcontinent. ISKCON Silicon Valley’s home kirtan program brings a devotional dimension to that gathering — the story behind the fire that gives the flames an entirely new depth of meaning. For many Bay Area Punjabi families, Lohri marks the beginning of the festival season that builds toward Holi — another fire-lit celebration, just two months later in the Punjabi calendar.

What Is Lohri?

Lohri is observed on the thirteenth day of the month of Pausha (or the last day of the solar month of Sagittarius), the night before Makar Sankranti. It is primarily a North Indian harvest festival — celebrating the winter wheat crop, the passing of the coldest nights, and the sun’s transition into Capricorn. The bonfire is the center of the celebration: the fire is lit at sunset, offerings of rewri (sesame brittle), puffed rice, popcorn, and groundnuts are thrown into the flames, and families and neighbors circle the fire singing Lohri songs. The offerings to the fire — particularly the sesame seeds and the grain — are traditional offerings of the harvest, an expression of gratitude to the forces that sustain life.

Lohri carries special significance in years of new births and new marriages — the first Lohri of a newborn child or a newly married couple is celebrated with particular joy. The festival is deeply communal: the singing of folk songs, the sharing of food, and the gathering of extended family around the fire represent the bonds that sustain a community through the dark months of winter. In the Bay Area, Lohri gatherings in family backyards and community parks carry this tradition forward with full energy.

The Fire and Prahlad: The Devotional Heart of Lohri

The popular origin story of Lohri connects it to the figure of Dulla Bhatti — a Punjabi folk hero who rescued girls from being sold into slavery and arranged their marriages. This folk-hero tradition gives Lohri its songs and its community character. But there is a deeper mythological layer that connects Lohri’s fire to one of the most powerful stories in all of the Puranas: the story of Prahlad and Holika.

Prahlad — the child devotee of Lord Vishnu whose story is told in the Srimad Bhagavatam’s Seventh Canto — was placed in a bonfire by his own father’s sister, Holika, who had a boon making her immune to flames. Prahlad, chanting Vishnu’s names, was unharmed. Holika burned. The fire that was meant to destroy devotion became the fire that purified it. This story — which forms the basis of Holi’s Holika Dahan bonfire — is also present in the background of Lohri: fire as the revealer of what is real, the destroyer of what is false, the friend of the pure-hearted devotee.

Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṇu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord — these nine processes constitute pure devotional service.

— Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.23-24

Prahlad’s nine practices of devotional service, enumerated in this verse, are exactly what he was performing when the fire could not touch him. The Bhagavatam uses his story to establish that genuine devotion to the Supreme Lord creates an inviolable field of protection — not through magic but through the natural operation of the divine order. The Lohri bonfire, when seen through this lens, is not merely a harvest celebration but an annual re-enactment of a cosmic principle: fire purifies, devotion protects, and the Lord’s name is the ultimate shield against all opposition.

Prahlad was placed in fire, thrown from a cliff, given poison, trampled by elephants — and none of it could touch him. The Lord’s name was his shield.

— Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5 (essence)

The Sacred Fire in Vedic Tradition

Fire holds a unique place in the entire Vedic tradition. Agni — the fire deity — is the messenger between the human world and the divine, carrying offerings from the yajnas and havans to the celestial realm. The Rig Veda opens with a hymn to Agni: Agnim ile purohitam — “I worship Agni, the priest of the yajna.” In this sense, the Lohri bonfire is not a secular campfire but a continuation of the Vedic fire tradition: an offering to the cosmic order, an act of gratitude to the forces that sustain life, a purification of the household and the community at the turning of the solar cycle.

The practice of throwing sesame seeds and grain into the Lohri fire mirrors exactly the ahuti (fire offerings) of a Vedic yajna. In the Bhagavad Gita (3.9-16), Krishna describes the yajna as the foundational act of human civilization — the cycle of offering, rain, grain, and sustenance that keeps the world in motion. Lohri participates in that cycle consciously, even if the participants don’t always name it in those terms.

Bring a Lohri Kirtan Into Your Own Home

ISKCON Silicon Valley’s Bay Area home kirtan program brings the devotional story of Prahlad and the sacred fire tradition into your Lohri gathering. Our devotees come to your home for a two-hour program of live kirtan and a short katha on Prahlad’s story from the Bhagavatam — ideally timed for the early evening before or around the Lohri bonfire lighting. The kirtan includes the chanting of Hare Krishna with full instruments, along with the Damodarashtaka (from the Padma Purana, sung throughout the Kartik-Pausha season) and Prahlad-related devotional songs. The arati at the close of the evening mirrors the fire offering of the Lohri bonfire itself, connecting the two traditions beautifully. To book a home kirtan Bay Area session, use the Calendly widget above or send a WhatsApp message.

The program is completely free — ISKCON-sponsored — and open to all families, whether or not you have any prior connection to the Vaishnava tradition. Lohri is a festival for everyone who gathers around a fire; the kirtan adds a layer that makes the gathering more meaningful without changing what you already do. See footage of past home kirtan evenings at @bhajanclubbing.bayarea on Instagram.

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ISKCON Silicon Valley: Honoring All Expressions of Devotion

ISKCON — the International Society for Krishna Consciousness — was founded in 1966 by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and has operated in Mountain View, California as ISKCON Silicon Valley since 1968. Srila Prabhupada taught that the entire range of Vedic culture — including its fire traditions, harvest festivals, and community celebrations — points ultimately toward the same destination: the purification of consciousness and the awakening of love for the Supreme Lord. Lohri, in this light, is not outside the devotional tradition but deeply within it.

Want to host this kind of evening at your home? Choose a date below — our kirtan team will travel to you.

Host a Lohri Kirtan at Your Home

Lohri falls on the thirteenth of Pausha month — the eve of Makar Sankranti, typically January 13. Check availability below and book an early evening session that fits your Lohri gathering schedule.

Book a Lohri home kirtan session →

For temple programs around Lohri and Makar Sankranti, see iskconsv.com/programs. Contact us with any questions.

Gaurav Verma

Kirtan Volunteer · ISKCON Silicon Valley

Gaurav has been leading bhajans and kirtans in Bay Area homes for more than 10 years. He teaches harmonium for kirtan on YouTube, shares bhajan albums on SoundCloud, and coordinates the Vrindavan Mellows home kirtan service across the San Francisco Bay Area.