Nabanna and Pitha Parbon
By | Published: January 3, 2014
Nabanna and Poush Sankranti harvest festival
Table of Contents
- 1. The Roots and Rituals of Nabanna
- 2. Poush Parban and Winter Delicacies
- 3. Field Rituals, Crows Invitation - Traditional Customs
- 4. Heirloom Rice Varieties and Joynogorer Moa
- 5. Pitha, Puli, and Nolen Gur Craftsmanship
- 6. Traditional Nabanna Offering Recipe
- 7. Regional Harvest Traditions Across Neighboring States
- 8. Frequently Asked Questions
1. The Roots and Rituals of Nabanna
In Bengal, the Nabanno (নবান্ন) festival was celebrated to ensure good crops and healthy livestock for the coming year. It used to be a massive event that began before sunrise and involved the entire community, even children who recited rhymes. It is therefore a new crop celebration, as the name describes, with "Nava" meaning new and "Anna" referring to grain. It is a time of joy as the smell of newly harvested crops rises into the air, and rice paste is used to decorate gardens and homes. The cultivation of rice was widespread throughout the fertile plain of the Ganges. The tradition stems from the Vedic period due to dietary habits. At one time, this ceremony could draw whole community engagement into a celebration as elaborate as described here. The rite includes giving respect to our real feeder—the earth and the farmers. This ritual leading up to eating the first crop in a modest community event, a preparation called Nabanna that is still used today in ritual offerings, seems to date back to Vedic times. Nabanna, in this context, features food whose rituals and taboos are central, even if culinary customs do not strictly follow any accepted rules and seem to float in a nebulous cloud of common class and caste.
2. Poush Parban and Winter Delicacies
Late autumn is followed by winter, which looks overcast in the morning. An assortment of delicious vegetables grows in this season, and people consume them. Folk festivals like Poush parban are a wonderful mixture of several traditions that originated from rites and celebrations held to keep agricultural gods and the goddess of wealth and prosperity happy. This festival, also known as Poush parban and Pitha parab (পরব), is held on the last day of the Bengali calendar month of Poush (mid-December to mid-January).
It is primarily celebrated in villages where paddy is harvested around this time. Granary doors and husking pads are ritually tied with ropes of newly made hay, which is believed to be a symbol of good luck. The names of the rituals include Gurir haat (গুড়ির হাত), Baoni (বাউনি), Nabanna, Pitha parab, Lakshminarayan brata, and Khetra puja. The annual fair at Gangasagar is also held on this day. Besides Nabanna and Poush parvan—the main rural festivals of Bengal—there are other minor festivals not directly related to agriculture, such as Bastu puja, Dak-sankranti, and Dhane shadh. Some aspects are also drawn from the early days of Sankranti, namely Tushtoshali (তুষ-তোশালী) brata, where the husk of new rice, brinjal leaves, mustard, radish, and flat bean flower are needed. Similar festivals across different parts of Bengal include "Tusu" (টুসু)—a harvest festival celebrated mainly in the Puruliya district of West Bengal that ends on the last day of Poush (mid-January) with rice and sesame dumplings with coconut fillings offered to the goddess.
3. Field Rituals, Crows Invitation - Traditional Customs
The traditional harvest rites often begin right in the agricultural fields. A farmer walks out to the field carrying a brass plate (kāshār thālā) with seasonal flowers, an earthen lamp (pradip), incense (dhup), and a sickle (kānte). Reaching the field, he ties three or four panicles of paddy together with a thread, clears the soil around the base, and lights the lamp and incense. After bowing in reverence, he takes three or five high-yielding spikes of grain from the tied bunches in his right hand, wraps them along with the sickle in a plantain leaf, and covers a separate cluster of paddy plants with a red gamcha or shalu cloth. Arranging the bundles of paddy on the brass plate, the farmer returns home to be welcomed by the household with a vermilion mark (sindur phuṭā) and paddy with durba grass placed on his head.
Those who migrated from East Bengal and integrated deeply with local communities observe these rituals with distinct regional flavors. On the misty winter dawn of the festival before sunrise, children have the joyful duty of inviting crows. With immense enthusiasm across courtyards and beneath trees, they chant in a melodic rhyme:
"O kāorā ko ko ko—
Mogō bāṛi śubha nabān gō
Āiō baiō chālakalā khāiō."
(O crows, come-come-come! Good Nabanna is at our home today; come, sit, and partake in the rice and bananas.)
Following this, the woman of the house would soak rice and a twig of a mango tree in a pot of water the night before, and in the morning sprinkle it on everyone in the family to wash away past mistakes. Early in the morning, women decorate the dhenki (the wooden beam used for pounding rice) and perform baran (বরণ). One of the women pounds the first batch of rice and throws a fistful into the air as an offering. The rest is taken home, where intricate alpana motifs are etched on precious household possessions.
Offerings are made to animals, deities, and fire, while welcoming neighbors with rice cakes from the new crop. Crows are lured with food, as their flight path is viewed as a sacred thanksgiving sign where ancestors or spirits accept the offering as crows, leaving the rest as holy prasād. Through this, the core philosophy resonates: "Let everyone's joy be part of my joy," embracing animals and nature as our closest kin.
4. Heirloom Rice Varieties and Joynogorer Moa
There is no fixed time for Nabanna; it depends on newly harvested rice and "what kind of rice!" one has to select from a large variety. My father can recall a few names and their characteristics: "Hingkeshar", "Sitashaal", and "Madhushaal" (whose poetic name is "Gourikajal"). Apart from those, dozens of names can be memorized, such as Kamalbhog, Kataribhog, Gopalbhog, Durgabhog, and Kishoribhog. In winter, "moa" (these days a specialty from Jaynagar called Jaynagarer moa) attracts one's taste buds; it is made with "khoi" (খই - popped rice) fried using exclusively kanakchur rice—no other rice can be used for that. There are many varieties of rice named with the suffix "shaal", like Angurshaal, lathishaal, morichshaal, and jeerashaal, alongside a black variety. People composed verses and stories depicting many varieties of rice—matured rice dancing with northern winds as if the sound of music comes from the anklets of a dancing maiden, giving rise to names like ghungurshaal and nupurshaal. And yes, we have karpurkanti rice; even from their green leaves, the scent of camphor spreads. Naughty boys and expectant mothers would eat even the leaves with pleasure to taste their fragrance.
5. Pitha, Puli, and Nolen Gur Craftsmanship
Now about Nabanna preparation: milky white sweet-smelling rice grains are a must, mixed with a paste of overnight-soaked uncooked rice, unboiled milk, first-cut nolen jaggery, scraped coconut of jhuno narkel, and fried binni rice khoi. Mix all in a bowl, and it is ready to be offered and served.
The first stage of coconut is "Daab" (ডাব - green coconut), which has no innards. In the next stage, a white watery inner layer develops, which is not fit for Nabanna. The third stage is "Durmo" (দুরমো)—fragile meat of coconut flesh—followed by "Chwal" (চল), a solidifying stage, and "Jhuno" (ঝুনো), the hard white flesh of a mature coconut. For Nabanna, one can use "Durmo" to decorate the dish.
Pitha preparations have a base made of starch (either rice or wheat). A raw, uncooked batter is prepared from this, which will eventually be used to form a pouch where additional fillings (sweet, vegetable, meat, etc.) are added. The pouch is called "khol" (the container), and the fillings are called "pur". Bengalis make rice-based specialties such as saru chakli (rice-batter crepes fried in a pan over a porous earthenware lid, which tastes sublime with syrupy liquid jaggery). Pat-pora pitha are steamed rice cakes wrapped in leaves. Puli pitha is a dumpling similar to dim sum made with a covering of rice flour around desiccated coconut and fried milk (kheer). Gur pitha consists of fried balls of fermented rice batter flavored with jaggery and coconut ash. Chusi pitha (long rice-shaped pitha boiled in milk and jaggery) are extremely popular. Other varieties include Chitui or Chiti pitha, Teler pitha, Vapa pitha (also known as Dhupi in the Rajshahi area), mug-pakon, Dudher pitha (also known as Vija pitha), and Pathishapta pitha—usually a thin flat cake prepared from a batter of soaked and ground rice, fried in oil, roasted over a slow fire, and rolled over a hot plate. It is traditionally served by Bengalis at open houses on festive occasions like Poush Sankranti and Nabanna. Pithas may also feature various stuffings: coconut and kheer for sweet pithas, and grated vegetables or duck meat for savory versions, such as Shomsher pitha (fried triangular shapes stuffed with minced meat).
Pitha is a favorite sweet all over East India, and women at home were making these long before sweet shops became immensely popular. In Odisha, pithas are made from rice flour or semolina, with dumplings stuffed with delicate coconut fillings sweetened with jaggery and raisins. Wrapping the batter in turmeric leaves and steaming it makes a favorite pitha. Sweet aromas ooze from neighborhoods across Bengal where cauldrons of cow's or buffalo's milk are boiled, simmered, and reduced to make payesh and kheer (thick evaporated milk) for the occasion.
Bengalis consider palm jaggery (khejur gur – খেজুর গুড়) superior in taste to any other sweetener. In winter when palms are tapped, numerous sweets use gur as liquid molasses (jhola gur – ঝোলা গুড়) or as a dry paste (patali - পাটালি). During its short season, one can find patali embedded in curdled milk or other sweets. Sweet-obsessed Bengalis during this season enjoy sweets made with nolen gur, from Rossogolla (a syrup-poached, curdled milk bouncy dumpling) to karapaker sandesh (a dry sweet that can be stored longer) as well as creamier sandesh. Alternative sweeteners like sugarcane jaggery (akher gur) or regular sugar are generally not preferred during this season.
For making 'patali gur' from unfermented sap, the 'jiran ras' (initial sap) or 'katel ras' (sap collected during the night) is strained through a net-like, brownish growth of the leaf sheath called 'ramra'. The fresh sap is then alkalined with lime and boiled in a 'jelo' or 'tarasi' (a large, fat-bellied earthen pot) over a 'ban' (a folk furnace found in Bengal). During boiling, scum is frequently removed using a wooden ladle called a 'hata' or a petiole-made ladle called a 'taru'. This process is locally called 'gyaj pheta'. Desired consistency is then attained through steps known as 'toak', 'jhola gur', 'toag', and 'bich', culminating in 'bich mara'. Ultimately, the 'bich' is poured into holes in the earth covered with muslin cloth, locally called 'lobat'. Those working in the sugar-date-palm industry in rural Bengal collecting sap and preparing crude sugar and patali are called sheuli.
I remember my mother—despite her busy schedule raising her daughters and maintaining a devoted career in government service from 9:30 to 5:30 as an exceptionally selfless and idealistic lady—spending her holidays during this season unhurriedly forming uncountable patishaptas and natun gurer payesh. She taught us how to follow nature culturally with a great food fiesta while remaining relaxed about strict customs.
Bengali culture faces threats from globalization, but I believe it has the strength to adjust to all situations because it is anchored in human values. The phrase parents tell their children—"manush haoa", not an exact expression, but a blessing "to be a good human being"—proves how human values are placed above everything else as the core essence of Bengali culture.
6. Traditional Nabanna Offering Recipe
Traditional Bengali Nabanna (নবান্ন প্রসাদ)
An authentic, uncooked offering made with the season's very first harvest produce, fresh fruits, un-matured coconut tender flesh, tender coconut water, and fresh date palm jaggery (nolen gur).
Ingredients
- New Rice Paste: 1 cup freshly harvested unboiled rice, soaked overnight and ground into a smooth paste.
- Coconut Water: 1/2 cup fresh tender coconut water (daab-er jol).
- Tender Coconut Flesh: 1/4 cup tender/fragile coconut meat (durmo or early stage coconut flesh).
- Ripe Bananas: 2-3 ripe traditional bananas (such as Champa or Martabin bananas), mashed or sliced.
- Seasonal Fruits: Small pieces of available fresh seasonal fruits (like sliced apples or oranges).
- Nolen Gur: 3-4 tbsp fresh liquid date palm jaggery (nolen gur).
- Milk: 1/2 cup fresh unboiled or boiled chilled milk (optional traditional touch).
- Fried Khoi: A handful of popped rice (khoi), preferably from fragrant rice varieties.
Step-by-Step Preparation
- Prepare the Rice Base: Take a clean, wide brass or kansa bowl (kāshār thālā). Place the freshly ground soaked new rice paste in the center.
- Add Coconut Water and Flesh: Pour in the sweet tender coconut water and gently fold in the fragile tender coconut flesh (durmo) for a subtle texture.
- Incorporate Fruits and; Bananas: Add the sliced ripe bananas and seasonal fruits into the bowl. Mash them lightly with clean hands so the fruit juices blend harmoniously with the rice paste.
- Sweeten with Nolen Gur: Drizzle the fragrant liquid nolen gur over the mixture. If desired, splash a little fresh milk for creaminess.
- Garnish and Offer: Toss in a handful of crispy popped rice (khoi) right before serving. Mix everything delicately, offer it first to the household deities or nature as a token of thanksgiving, and distribute as sacred Nabanna blessing to family and neighbors.
7. Regional Harvest Traditions Across Neighboring States
Similar celebrations take place in the tribal regions of Bangladesh after crop harvesting, where Navanna is celebrated in the autumn month of Agrahayan, and the Soharay Festival takes place among the Santhals during winter. The Mailukma Festival is unique to the Usui, Wangalla is a Garo tribal festival, and the Mru celebrate the Charmoinat festival—all of which are harvest celebrations.
Nuakhai is observed to welcome the new rice-paddy (“Aant Dhan”) of the season across Western Orissa. According to the Hindu calendar, it is observed on “Bhadraba Sukllapakshya Panchami Tithi” in August-September, also called Nabanna Bhakhayana. The importance of Nuakhai is understood through its nine different rituals. As a prelude to the actual day, people collect new paddy on the day before Nuakhai and make it into flattened rice (chuda), decorating their houses with banners of new paddy. On Nuakhai day, they prepare “Nua” (a mixture of chuda, banana, milk, and sugar) and visit the nearest village goddess temple to offer bhoga. After mixing the offered bhoga with home-prepared Nua, family members sit together and eat the mixture three times in a row. Juniors take blessings from seniors by touching their feet, and people greet one another with “Nuakhai Juhar”. In the evening, folk dances and songs are organized in Western Odisha under the banner of “Nua khai Bhetghat”.
In Odisha, Arisa pitha is a deep-fried pitha made from rice flour with jaggery or sugar. Manda pitha is a steamed pitha made from rice flour, often with grated coconut, jaggery, sugar, or fresh cheese (chhena) filling. Kakara pitha is a popular fried pancake made from wheat flour or semolina with a sweet coconut filling. Enduri pitha is a special delicacy of the Prathamastami festival made from rice flour and black gram, stuffed with jaggery, coconut, or cheese, and steamed inside a turmeric leaf. Chakuli pitha is a thick pancake (set dosa) made from fermented rice and black gram, often eaten for breakfast; thinner varieties called saru chakuli are served with dalama (vegetables mixed with pulses), nadia chatni (coconut chutney), or kheeri. Poda pitha ("burnt pitha") is slow-cooked from fermented rice and black gram with chopped coconut, featuring a slightly burnt crust and soft white interior, mostly prepared during Raja Parva. Chitau pitha is a fried pancake made from rice flour, coconut, and milk offered to Lord Jagannath on Chitalagi Amabasya. Gaintha godi are small balls of rice flour dipped in seasoned sweet milk, a specialty of Pausha Amavasya (Baula Amavasya). Other regional items include Karanji (dumpling stuffed with maida, coconut, cashew, and raisins), Malpua (sweetened deep-fried batter of bananas and flour), Suji Kakara Pitha, and Tala Pitha (made from palm fruit and rice batter).
Magh Bihu is akin to Makar Sankranti observed in other parts of the country. Celebrated in Assam, this harvest festival is dedicated to the Hindu fire god, Lord Agni. On Uruka, people organize a grand community feast that continues overnight alongside building bonfires of 'mejis' and 'bhelaghars' (more popular in lower Assam). The next morning, people light the Meji or bhelaghar to mark the festival's start. The Meji is a temple-like structure made of bamboo, thatch, and leaves, while young people construct temporary makeshift huts of bamboo and haystacks nearby to spend the night. The day proceeds with entertainment like bird fights and traditional sports. Mouth-watering delicacies and pithas served during this Assamese festival include til pitha, ghila pitha, Xutuli Pitha, Sunga Pitha, and Tekeli Pitha, alongside sweet snacks like Tilor Laru, Narikolor Laru, and rice-based snacks such as Bora Saul, Komal Saul, Chira, Muri, and Akhoi.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Nabanna festival?
Nabanna is a traditional harvest festival celebrated in Bengal to welcome newly harvested crops, express gratitude to the earth and farmers, and share festive food with the community.
How is traditional Nabanna food prepared?
Traditional Nabanna is an uncooked offering made by combining freshly ground soaked new rice paste, tender coconut water, tender coconut flesh, ripe bananas, seasonal fruits, fresh nolen gur, and popped rice (khoi).
What role does the Dhenki play in Bengali harvest rituals?
The Dhenki is a heavy foot-operated wooden lever used by women to dehusk rice and grind grains for festive preparations, symbolizing community bonding and heritage.