CHILLAI KALAN - ART AND CULTURE
News: Kashmir
Valley dons pheran to greet 40-day winter spell of Chillai Kalan
What's in the news?
● In
a first, the beginning of the 40-day
harshest spell of winter, locally called 'Chillai Kalan’, was celebrated as
‘Pheran Day’ in the Kashmir Valley,
to popularize the loose-and-long woolen gown worn to fight the biting cold as
the minimum temperature hovers below sub-zero in Srinagar.
Chillai Kalan:
● Chillai
Kalan is the coldest 40-day period of
harsh winter in the Jammu and Kashmir region.
● It
is traditionally defined as a seasonal period of harsh winter accompanied by a
change in increase in both frequency and quantity of precipitation, usually
snow.
● It begins from December
21 and ends on January 31 next year.
● It
is followed by a 20-day long Chillai-Khurd
(small cold) that occurs between January 31 and February 19 and a 10-day
long Chillai-Bachha (baby cold).
● According
to Persian tradition, the night of 21st
December is celebrated as Shab-e Yalda-“Night of Birth”, or Shab-e Chelleh
“Night of Forty”.