Festivals of Malenadu

What are the main Malenadu festivals?

The main Malenadu festivals are the big Hindu festivals shared across Karnataka, such as Sankranti, Yugadi, Ganesha Chaturthi and Deepavali, plus farming festivals found mainly in these hills, such as Bhoomi Hunnime and Huttari. On top of these come the temple jatres and car festivals that fill the dry months.

What makes Malenadu festivals different is the farm. Almost every celebration is tied to a stage of the paddy, areca or pepper crop. Many rituals happen in the field or the cattle shed rather than only in the prayer room. Here are the 15 celebrations this guide covers:

1. Makara Sankranti
2. Maha Shivaratri
3. Yugadi
4. Ramanavami
5. The Sirsi Marikamba jatre and other temple fairs
6. Nagara Panchami
7. Gowri and Ganesha Chaturthi
8. Kailpodh in Kodagu
9. Navaratri at Sringeri, Kollur and Horanadu
10. Bhoomi Hunnime
11. Kaveri Sankramana at Talakaveri
12. Deepavali and Bali Padyami
13. Tulasi habba
14. The Huttari festival in Kodagu
15. The Yakshagana season

If you are new to the region, our hub on Malenadu culture introduces the communities who celebrate them.

Malenadu festivals month by month

The table below places Malenadu festivals on the calendar. Most follow the Hindu lunar calendar, so the dates move by a few weeks each year. Check a local calendar before you travel.

Month (approx.)	Festival	Where it is strongest	Food on the plate
January	Makara Sankranti	Everywhere	Ellu bella (sesame and jaggery), sugarcane
February to March	Maha Shivaratri	Shiva temples, Gokarna on the coast	Fasting, then a simple meal
March to April	Yugadi	Everywhere	Bevu bella (neem and jaggery), holige
March to April	Ramanavami	Rama temples, village bhajans	Panaka, kosambari, buttermilk
Dry season, alternate years	Sirsi Marikamba jatre	Sirsi, Uttara Kannada	Fair snacks, festival meals at home
July to August	Nagara Panchami	Snake shrines, every village	Steamed kadubu in turmeric leaves
August to September	Gowri and Ganesha	Everywhere	Kadubu, modaka, payasa
3 September	Kailpodh	Kodagu	Festive Kodava meal
September to October	Navaratri	Sringeri, Kollur, Horanadu	Payasa, festival meals
October	Bhoomi Hunnime	Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada	Many dishes carried to the field
Mid October	Kaveri Sankramana	Talakaveri, Bhagamandala, Kodagu	Dosa and pumpkin curry
October to November	Deepavali	Everywhere	Kadubu, holige, kajjaya, payasa
November	Tulasi habba	Every home with a tulasi plant	Sweets and fruit offered
November to December	Huttari	Kodagu	Thambittu, new rice
November to May	Yakshagana season	Uttara Kannada and the coast	Snacks at all-night shows

You can match this with our Malenadu crop calendar to see how closely Malenadu festivals follow planting and harvest.

Winter and spring: Sankranti to the jatres

The first Malenadu festivals of the calendar year come in the cool, dry months, when the harvest is in and people have time and money to celebrate.

Makara Sankranti in January marks the sun’s move north. Families exchange ellu bella, a mix of sesame, jaggery, coconut and groundnut. Cattle are washed and decorated in many villages.

Maha Shivaratri in February or March is a night of fasting and worship at Shiva temples. In Uttara Kannada, the Mahabaleshwara temple at Gokarna draws huge crowds.

Yugadi, the Kannada new year, comes in March or April. Everyone eats a little bevu bella (neem flowers and jaggery) for the bitter and sweet of the year ahead. Holige (sweet flatbread) is the festival treat.

Ramanavami follows soon after, with panaka (a cool jaggery drink with pepper and cardamom) and kosambari (soaked lentil salad) handed out at temples and street corners.

What happens at a Malenadu jatre?

A Malenadu jatre is a temple fair, usually tied to a car festival (rathotsava) or the annual feast of a village goddess. Stalls sell bangles, toys, steel vessels, farm tools and snacks, families come from far villages and the deity is taken out in procession.

The best known is the Sirsi Marikamba jatre, held once every two years and drawing devotees from all over Karnataka. It is usually held in the dry season around March. Smaller jatres, the most social of all Malenadu festivals, run in almost every taluk between December and May, so any Malenadu trip in these months will likely cross one.

Monsoon festivals: Nagara Panchami and Ganesha

Monsoon Malenadu festivals are quieter and mostly held at home, because the rain keeps people indoors and the fields need all their time.

Nagara Panchami in July or August honours the snake gods. Families pour milk at a snake mound (huttu) or a stone naga shrine, often in a sacred grove. Many Malenadu homes steam sweet kadubu wrapped in fresh turmeric leaves.

Gowri and Ganesha Chaturthi in August or September is one of the biggest family festivals. Gowri is worshipped first by women, then Ganesha the next day. Kitchens make kadubu, modaka (sweet stuffed dumplings) and payasa with jaggery and cardamom. In the rain the Ganesha idols are often small and kept at home, with larger public idols in towns.

Kodagu festivals: Kailpodh, Kaveri Sankramana and Huttari

Kodagu festivals belong to the Kodava people and are among the most distinctive Malenadu festivals, tied closely to paddy, the river Kaveri and the clan house. Three stand out, all described well in this Deccan Herald guide to Kodava festivals.

Kailpodh is held on 3 September, after rice seedlings are planted. Traditional weapons, war knives and guns, are cleaned, decorated with flowers and worshipped, followed by games such as coconut shooting.

Kaveri Sankramana falls in mid October, on the first day of the month of Tula, when holy water rises at the source of the Kaveri at Talakaveri. Devotees bathe at Bhagamandala. Kodava homes worship a pot of water as the river goddess and eat a simple meal of dosa and pumpkin curry.

Huttari festival: the new rice of Kodagu

The Huttari festival (Puttari, “new rice”) is the grandest of Kodagu festivals, held on the full moon of the Kodava month of Birchyaar, usually in November or December. After dusk, families walk to the paddy field with a lamp, a man cuts the first sheaves while everyone calls out “Poli, poli, deva!” and the new rice is carried home to be tied around the house.

The festival dish is thambittu, made from fried rice flour, banana, sesame and coconut. Huttari is also a time for Kodava songs and dances on the village green. Of all Malenadu festivals, it is the one Kodavas working in cities most try to come home for.

What is Bhoomi Hunnime?

Bhoomi Hunnime is the farmers’ festival of Mother Earth (Bhoomi tayi), held on the full moon of the month of Ashwayuja, usually in October, across the hill taluks of Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada. At this time the paddy is forming grain. Farmers say the earth is pregnant, so the festival is treated like a seemantha, the baby shower given to an expectant mother. No day shows the farm heart of Malenadu festivals more clearly.

The night before, families cook many dishes, often with vegetables from their own land. In the morning the head of the house carries the food to the field in a bamboo or cane basket, worships the earth, places an offering (ede) in the paddy and shares food with the crows. Then the whole family sits in the field and eats together. Some areca farmers dress their trees in a sari and ornaments for the day.

Among the Deevaru (Idiga) community of the Sagara, Thirthahalli and Hosanagara side, the basket is the famous bhoomanni butti, painted with Hase Chittara designs. In the Havyaka calendar the day is also called Bhoomi Pooja. Farmers avoid digging or ploughing the land.

Bhoomi Hunnime is one of the Malenadu festivals most worth seeing as a visitor, but it is a family ritual in private fields. If a host family invites you, go. Otherwise enjoy it from the roadside.

How is Deepavali in Malenadu different?

Deepavali in Malenadu is a farm festival as much as a festival of lights, with the cows, the fields and the bath pot at its centre. It is the longest of the Malenadu festivals, running over three or four days in October or November.

1. Filling water. On the eve of Naraka Chaturdashi the big hande (bath pot) is cleaned, decorated and filled with fresh water.
2. Oil bath. Before dawn on Naraka Chaturdashi, elders apply oil and everyone has a hot bath, then wears new clothes.
3. Lakshmi puja. On the new moon, homes and shops worship Lakshmi.
4. Bali Padyami. The next morning cows are washed, decorated and fed a share of the festival meal (gou puje). In the evening families worship King Bali (Balindra) with lamps. Many carry lamps or torches to their fields.

The house-to-house singers of Deepavali in Malenadu are called antige pintige. Groups carry a lamp from the village temple and sing at each home for three nights. Households give rice, money and sweets in return.

Deepavali kitchens are full of kadubu: kayi kadubu stuffed with coconut and jaggery, kotte kadubu steamed in jackfruit leaf cups and sweet pumpkin kadubu. For the oil bath many homes use coconut oil, such as our wood pressed coconut oil.

Navaratri, Tulasi habba and the Yakshagana season

The late part of the year brings three very different Malenadu festivals: a great temple festival, a quiet home festival and a whole season of night theatre.

Navaratri in September or October is celebrated at the big temple towns of the hills. Sringeri dresses Goddess Sharada in a different form each day, Kollur Mookambika draws pilgrims from across South India and Horanadu Annapoorneshwari is crowded through the nine nights.

Tulasi habba comes a few days after Deepavali, on the twelfth day of the bright half of Kartika. The tulasi plant in the courtyard is decorated with lamps and amla branches and symbolically married, which marks the start of the wedding season.

The Yakshagana season begins after the rains, roughly from Deepavali until May. Touring troupes perform all night at temple fairs and village grounds. In the monsoon the seated form called talamaddale keeps the art alive indoors.

Foods and sweets of Malenadu festivals

Foods and sweets of Malenadu festivals are built on rice, coconut, jaggery, ghee and cardamom. Most families cook them only for the festival day. These are the ones you will meet most often:

Sweet or dish	What it is	When it is made
Holige	Flatbread stuffed with jaggery and lentil or coconut	Yugadi, Deepavali, weddings
Kajjaya	Fried sweet of rice flour and jaggery	Deepavali, jatres
Payasa	Milk or coconut milk pudding with jaggery	Almost every festival
Kadubu	Steamed rice dumplings, sweet or savoury	Ganesha, Nagara Panchami, Deepavali
Ellu bella	Sesame, jaggery and coconut mix	Sankranti
Thambittu	Rice flour, banana, sesame and coconut	Huttari
Coconut jaggery burfi	Coconut cooked with jaggery into squares	Any festival plate

At most Malenadu festivals holige is served warm with a spoon of ghee on top. Our desi cow ghee is hand churned by farmer families, the way festival ghee has always been made in the hills. Payasa is not payasa without a few crushed pods of green cardamom.

Jaggery runs through the kitchen at all Malenadu festivals. Joni bella (liquid jaggery) goes over dose and kadubu on festival mornings and into many payasa recipes. Our liquid jaggery is the same soft, pourable jaggery.

The sweet that turns up on almost every plate at Malenadu festivals is coconut cooked with jaggery. Our coconut jaggery burfi is made the home way, which makes it an easy addition to a Deepavali or Yugadi plate if you are short of time.

Gifting ideas for Malenadu festivals

The simplest gifts for Malenadu festivals are the things a hill family would give: sweets, jaggery, spices and a little ghee, carried in a cloth or jute bag rather than plastic. Visiting relatives at Deepavali or Yugadi with something from your own farm is an old habit.

For more gifting ideas for Malenadu festivals, read our post on Deepavali gift ideas in a jute bag. A Kannada printed small jute bag with a box of burfi, a bottle of joni bella and a pack of pepper makes a gift that feels like the hills.

Plan your visit around a festival

The best way to see Malenadu festivals is to time a trip with one: Huttari in Kodagu, a Malenadu jatre in the dry months or a village Deepavali. Read about the traditional houses where these festivals happen, learn a few words from our guide to Malenadu languages and plan the trip with our travel guide.

Frequently asked questions about Malenadu festivals