Pola (festival)

Pola is a festival respecting bulls and oxen which is celebrated by farmers in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh , Telangana, Karnataka. Pola is a thanksgiving festival of farmers and their families for their bulls. In this day farmers don't work their bulls in the farmland. Pola is celebrated in these states to acknowledge the importance of bulls and oxen, who are a crucial part of agriculture and farming activities. The pampering of Bulls begins a day or two before Pola.,[1] farmers and farming families celebrate this festival in praise of their bulls. There is a holiday on the occasion of Pola in rural regions of Maharashtra in schools. Farmers don't do any work with bulls this day.[2] It is a very important festival for farmers. They dedicate the whole day to their bulls. Women make Rangolis outside in front of their house, tie Toran on top of doors, they prepare puja thalis with kumkum, water, and sweets and an earthen lamp with ghee to do puja, aarti of bulls.[3] The whole family take blessings from their Bulls, touch their feet, do Namaste them. Farmers wash their bulls, colour their horns, change their old year-long ropes, tie new ropes with bells, serve them different kind of grains like Jowar, wheat and lentils, perform their arti (Hindu ritual of respecting of God by moving clay lamp in front of him) and give them naivadya (food offered by devotees to God) to eat. It also celebrates in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Northern parts of Telangana as Polala Amavasya. Pola is a Hindu festival. On the day of Pola, the farmers decorate and respect their bulls. It falls on the day of the Pithori Amavasya (the new moon day) in the month of Shravana (usually in August).[4]

Oxen are decorated with such ornaments on the pola.