Maharashtra revels in new year on 'Gudhi Padwa'

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday greeted people on the occasion of ‘Gudhi Padwa’, marking the Hindu as well as Marathi new year, urging people to uphold the state’s cultural diversity.“Maharashtra has a beautiful culture that needs to be preserved and gifted to the younger generation. People should (take a) vow to uphold the cultural diversity of the state,” Fadnavis said in his message.Falling on the first day of the month of Chaitra, ‘Gudhi Padwa’ is celebrated as New Year with traditional fervour in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, parts of Konkan and among the Sindhi community under different names.In the island city of Mumbai and its suburbs, the festival was celebrated with gaiety as revellers comprising women, dressed in traditional Marathi attire, took out processions amid beating of drums.Markets too were abuzz with activity as people flocked shops to buy sweets, clothes and other items to mark the beginning of the new year.People erected traditional ‘gudhi’—a stick decorated with flowers and colourful cloth tied around it—at their houses to mark the occasion.At Dombivali in neighbouring Thane district, a huge procession was taken out in the morning amid beating of drums and cymbals.Similar enthusiasm was seen among people in cities like Pune, Nashik, Nagpur to name a few, where people flocked to temples to pay their obeisance to the deity. 

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