Navreh

Kashmiri Pandits celebrate their New Year’s Day on the first day of the bright half of the month of Chaitra (March–April) and call it Navreh - the word navreh, derived from the Sanskrit ‘nava varsha’, literary meaning ‘new year’. The Kashmiri Pandit families that migrated to the plains before 1900 also celebrate Navreh with great pride. On the eve of Navreh, a platter of unhusked rice with a bread, a cup of yogurt, a little salt, a little sugar candy, a few walnuts or almonds, a silver coin, a pen, a mirror, some flowers (rose, marigold, crocus, or jasmine) and the new panchanga or almanac is kept and seen as the first thing on waking up in the morning. This ritual is more or less the same as the Haft Sin of the Iranian and Zoroastrian Nowruz. The Bhringisha Samhita says that the platter should be of bronze (kansyapatraka). The same ritual is observed on Sonth or the Kashmiri spring festival.

The Saptarshi Era of the Kashmiri Hindu calendar is believed to have started on this very day, some 5079 years ago. According to the legend, the celebrated Sapta Rishis assembled on the Sharika Parvata (Hari Parbat), the abode of the goddesss Sharika, at the auspicious moment when the first ray of the sun fell on the Chakreshvara on this day and paid tribute to her. Astrologers made this moment as the basis of their calculations of the nava varsha pratipada, marking the beginning of the Saptarshi Era. Before their exodus Kashmiri Pandits would flock to Hari Parbat in thousands to celebrate Navreh.