Ghughute made at home for Makar Sankranti, early 2023. Photo © Manish Danai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
What the festival is, when it falls in 2027 and why it has two days, how ghughute are made and strung, what the children sing to the crows, and the story told about a prince of the Chand kings.
The short answer: Ghughutiya is Kumaon’s Makar Sankranti. On the festival day families fry little shapes of sweetened dough called ghughute, string them into garlands with oranges and nuts, and the next morning the children wear them and call the crows to come and eat, singing kale kauva kale, ghughuti mala kha le. In 2027 the Sankranti falls at 9:14 pm on 14 January by the Haldwani panchang, so the main day is likely 15 January, with the crows called on the 16th. Families in Bageshwar and Pithoragarh keep it a day earlier, which is why you will see two dates every year. Behind it is a story about a Chand prince, nicknamed Ghughuti, whom the crows rescued.
By Deepa Pant, Contributor, Haldwani. About the author ↓
The story and the customs below do not change from year to year. The dates do, so they sit here with the day we checked them.
Ghughutiya 2027
Across India, Makar Sankranti marks the sun’s move into Capricorn and the start of its northward journey, Uttarayan. Kumaon keeps the day with a dip in the rivers, at Bageshwar above all, and at home with ghughute and crows. The festival goes by several names: Ghughutiya or Ghughuti tyar, after the sweets; Uttarayani, after the sun’s turn; Kale Kauva, after the children’s call; and Pusyudiya in the parts of eastern Kumaon that start a day early. Garhwal marks the same day as Khichdi Sankranti, with khichdi and not ghughute.
It is a family festival more than a public one, and a children’s one more than anything. The work happens in the kitchen on the festival afternoon, the frying in the evening, and the best part on the next morning, on the roof or in the courtyard, when the children try to get a crow to come down. Families also say that feeding the crows pleases the ancestors, who are thought to come in that form. Our guide to Uttarakhand in winter sets the festival beside the rest of a Kumaon January.
Every January somebody asks why their cousins in Bageshwar fed the crows a day before they did. The answer is a regional custom that everyone in Kumaon knows and nobody quite agrees on the edges of.
| Year | Almora, Nainital, Champawat, Udham Singh Nagar | Bageshwar and Pithoragarh |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 (reported) | Made 14 January, crows 15 January | A day earlier |
| 2027 (our reading) | Made 15 January, crows 16 January | Made 14 January, crows 15 January |
In Almora, Nainital, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar, ghughute are made on the first day of Magh, which is Makar Sankranti, and the crows are fed on the second. In Bageshwar and Pithoragarh, across the river, they are made on the last day of Paush, the eve of the Sankranti, and the crows are fed on Sankranti itself. That earlier tradition is the one called Pusyudiya, from Pus, the month of Paush. Accounts differ on which river draws the line: some say the Saryu, which runs through Bageshwar, and others the Ramganga. In practice, ask the family you are with.
The explanation people give is a folk one. When the king ordered the festival, the story goes, the news reached the far bank on the last day of Paush and the near bank a day later, and each side has kept its own day ever since. It is a good story and there is no record behind it. What it does tell you is how old and how local the custom is.
Ghughute are made from wheat flour and jaggery. The jaggery is dissolved in water, often warmed, and the flour kneaded with it into a dough like that for rotis. Some families work a little ghee into it, and recipes vary from house to house, so there is no single right one.
The dough is rolled into lengths about as thick as a finger. Each is folded into the ghughut itself, a looped shape a little like the figure 4, and pressed shut at the bottom. Then come the others: a damru drum, a sword and shield, a dhol, a bow, a fish, flowers, a small basket. The shapes dry for a few hours on a cloth and are fried in ghee or oil in the evening, like puris. Children are told to keep quiet while the frying goes on, or the ghughute will fly away.
When they have cooled, the pieces are strung on thread into garlands, with oranges, peanuts and other nuts between them. Nobody eats from them yet. The garlands are hung up for the night, ready for the morning, and the rest of the batch is shared with family and neighbours over the following days.
Early the next morning the children put on their garlands, go up onto the roof or out into the courtyard, and call the crows. The best-known line, sung in Kumaoni, is kale kauva kale, ghughuti mala kha le: “black crow, come, eat the ghughuti garland”. It goes on in verses that offer the crow a piece of the garland and ask for something in return: a golden plate, a golden horse, a pot, a knife, the company of brothers and sisters, depending on the family. Each family has its own lines, so do not be surprised if yours differ.
The ghughute laid out for the crows are put on the roof or a wall. Once the crows have had their share, the children eat their garlands, which is the part most of them have been waiting for.
The story told across Kumaon begins at Bageshwar. Kalyan Chand, a king of the Chand line, and his queen had no child. They prayed at the Bagnath temple, where the Saryu meets the Gomti, and a son was born to them, Nirbhay Chand. His mother called him Ghughuti, the name of the dove in Kumaoni songs, and hung a necklace of pearls and little bells round his neck. When he cried, she called the crows to come and eat, and the boy grew fond of them.
A minister who wanted the throne carried the boy off towards the forest. A crow saw it and raised the alarm, the flock attacked the kidnappers, and one crow flew back to the palace with the necklace. The king and queen followed the crows and found their son, guarded by them. In thanks, the queen made sweets and told Ghughuti to feed his friends, and from then on, the story goes, Kumaon did the same every Makar Sankranti. Tellings differ in the details: in some it is the necklace that leads the way, in others the cawing of the crows, and one version ties the festival to a drought instead. None of them is history, and none of them needs to be.
Because Ghughutiya happens at home, the way to see it is to be in a Kumaoni house on the morning after the festival. If you are staying in a homestay in the hills that week, ask your hosts. Many will be glad to have you on the roof with the children, and you will be offered ghughute whether you ask or not.
The public face of the season is the Uttarayani fair at Bageshwar, which opens around Makar Sankranti with the holy dip at the confluence. It was there, at the fair of January 1921, that people took the oath to end coolie begar, the forced labour of the colonial years, which is why the day carries a political memory in Kumaon as well. Kumaoni families who have moved to the plains keep their own fairs: in 2026 the Uttarayani fair at the Bareilly Club ground ran from 13 to 15 January, with folk dances, music and hill food, and Lucknow and Delhi have similar gatherings.
January is also a fine month to be in the hills for its own sake, with clear days, cold nights and, if you are lucky, snow on the ridges. Our pages on Mukteshwar in winter and on where to see snow in Uttarakhand cover what the weather is likely to do that week.
People wish each other “Happy Ghughutiya” in English, and in Hindi Ghughutiya tyar ki hardik shubhkamnayein, or simply Ghughuti tyar ki badhai. On the day itself, the greeting that matters most is a plate of ghughute carried to the neighbours.
No government list or local almanac we could read had fixed the 2027 days by 9 November 2026, so the dates in the box above are our reading of the panchang. We could not settle whether the Saryu or the Ramganga marks the line between the two customs, because Kumaoni sources say both. The rhymes and the recipe are given as Kumaoni families commonly describe them, and every family has its own version.
The dates of the last festivals come from dated news reports, and the story from Kumaoni retellings. Nobody from this site telephoned a temple or a family for this page. If your family keeps Ghughutiya differently, please tell us.
Around 14 and 15 January. The Haldwani panchang puts the Makar Sankranti moment at 9:14 pm on Thursday 14 January 2027, so the main festival day is likely Friday 15 January, with the crows called on the morning after. Families in Bageshwar and Pithoragarh keep it a day earlier. No official 2027 list had confirmed the date by 9 November 2026.
Yes. Ghughutiya is what Kumaon calls its Makar Sankranti, also known as Uttarayani, and in parts of eastern Kumaon as Pusyudiya. Garhwal marks the same day as Khichdi Sankranti, with khichdi in place of ghughute.
In the story told across Kumaon, crows saved a Chand prince called Ghughuti from a scheming minister, and his mother asked him to feed his crow friends in thanks. Families also say that feeding crows pleases the ancestors. The ghughute are kept for the crows and not eaten until they have been offered.
Wheat flour is kneaded with jaggery dissolved in water, rolled into finger-thick lengths and folded into the ghughut shape, with other pieces cut as drums, swords, shields and flowers. The pieces dry for a few hours and are fried in ghee or oil in the evening, then strung into garlands with oranges and nuts.
It is a regional custom. In Bageshwar and Pithoragarh, across the river from Almora, ghughute are made on the last day of Paush and the crows fed on Makar Sankranti itself. In Almora, Nainital, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar they are made on Sankranti and fed the next day. One folk explanation is that the king’s order reached the far bank a day sooner.
The Chand king Kalyan Chand and his queen had a son, Nirbhay Chand, after praying at the Bagnath temple in Bageshwar. His mother called him Ghughuti and fed crows to amuse him. When a minister carried the boy off, the crows raised the alarm, attacked the kidnappers and helped the king find him.
It is kept at home, so the best way is to be a guest in a Kumaoni house or a homestay on the morning the children call the crows. The public side is the Uttarayani fair at Bageshwar, which opens around Makar Sankranti, and smaller Uttarayani fairs in the plains, such as the one at the Bareilly Club ground, which ran from 13 to 15 January in 2026.