Rongali or Bohag Bihu is the Assamese New Year festival, opening the month of Bohag at the spring sankranti in mid-April. Its days honour the cattle, the family and the community in turn, with bihu dance and song, gamosa gifting and feasts of pitha and laru.
When: At the Bohag (Mesha) Sankranti opening the Assamese year — mid-April; celebrations run about a week
Where: Throughout Assam and the Assamese diaspora
Observance: Goru Bihu (bathing and honouring cattle), Manuh Bihu (new clothes, elders' blessings, bihuwan gifting), then days of bihu dance, husori and community feasts
Regional name: Rongali Bihu ("the Bihu of joy") · Bohag Bihu (after the month) · one of three Bihus with Kati and Magh
Same-day festivals: Shares the April sankranti with Vaisakhi (Punjab), Vishu (Kerala), Puthandu (Tamil Nadu) and Pohela Boishakh (Bengal)
The Bihu of joy
Assam keeps three Bihus, pinned to three moments of the rice year: Rongali in Bohag when the fields are readied and the year begins, Kati in autumn when the granaries stand empty, and Magh after the harvest. Rongali — from rong, joy and colour — is the greatest of the three, the Assamese New Year, falling at the April sankranti that Assam shares with Vaisakhi in Punjab, Vishu in Kerala and Puthandu in Tamil Nadu. Its roots are agrarian and older than any single religious stream: prayers for fertility of field and herd, courtship songs, and the welcome of spring rain. That inclusiveness remains its character — Rongali Bihu belongs to all Assamese communities across lines of faith and tribe, and its dance and dhol have become the emblem of Assamese identity itself, at home and abroad.
Goru Bihu, Manuh Bihu and the days of dance
The festival opens on the last day of the old year with Goru Bihu, the day of the cattle: cows and bullocks are led to the river, bathed, gently struck with sprigs of dighalati and makhioti while an old rhyme wishes them health, then given new tethers and fed pitha. The first day of Bohag is Manuh Bihu, the day of people: an early bath with maah-halodhi (black-gram and turmeric paste), new clothes, and the seeking of elders' blessings, marked everywhere by the gifting of the bihuwan — a hand-woven gamosa, the red-bordered cloth that is Assam's token of honour. Gosai Bihu follows, when the household deities are worshipped. Through the week, groups perform husori — moving house to house singing blessing-songs — while young dancers take the bihu dance to open grounds, with dhol, pepa (buffalo-horn pipe) and gogona. Tables fill with til pitha, ghila pitha, laru and doi-sira.
Rongali Bihu in Ottawa & Canada
Mid-April in Ottawa is genuinely spring-adjacent, and the festival transfers with surprising ease. At home, families keep Manuh Bihu with the turmeric-and-urad bath paste, new clothes, and gamosas offered to elders — many households bring a stock of gamosas from Assam or order them, since the bihuwan is the festival's essential gesture. Til pitha and narikol laru need nothing a Canadian Indian grocery cannot supply. Assamese associations in Canadian cities customarily hold a Rongali Bihu function on a nearby weekend with bihu dance, husori and a community feast — worth seeking out, as the dance is meant to be seen and joined, not kept private. Check the sankranti table on this site's calendar for the exact date the sun enters Mesha each April, which fixes the Assamese New Year; a call home to Assam on Goru Bihu morning is a cherished diaspora habit.
Each link opens our computed festival calendar with exact dates and timings for your city.
Questions
What is the difference between Rongali, Kati and Magh Bihu?
They mark three stages of the agricultural year. Rongali (Bohag) Bihu in mid-April is the New Year and spring festival of joy; Kati (Kongali) Bihu in mid-October is austere, with lamps lit for the growing crop; Magh (Bhogali) Bihu in mid-January is the post-harvest feast with bonfires.
Why does Rongali Bihu fall on the same day as Vaisakhi and Vishu?
All of them follow the solar calendar: the sun's entry into Mesha (Aries) in mid-April begins the year in many Indian regional calendars. Assam's Bohag, Punjab's Vaisakh, Kerala's Medam and Tamil Nadu's Chithirai all open at essentially the same sankranti.
What is a bihuwan?
A gamosa — the hand-woven white cloth with red border — presented as a mark of love and respect at Bihu. Offering a bihuwan to elders, guests and honoured persons is the festival's defining gesture, and the gamosa itself is a symbol of Assamese culture.
Source: Agrarian and folk tradition of the Assamese people. Regional versions may vary — this text follows the version most widely used in community worship.