Puthari Festival, the harvest festival of the Kodava tribes of
Kodagu District, is celebrated with gaiety, dance and fireworks. This festival usually falls in late November or early December.
On the Puthari day, the family members assemble in their house, which is decorated with flowers, mango and banana leaves. In the family worshipping place, the ladies fill the puthari basket with mango leaves, peepal tree leaves, and top it with paddy and rice. The phambuttu, is the specialty of the day prepared with bananas, fried rice powder and jaggery. The dish is put in a small earthenware vessel and milk, ghee, honey, sesame seeds, ginger, coconut, bitter gourd and a sickle are kept in front of the thook bolcha (the holy lamp) and puja is performed. After that, the Valaga (the traditional Kodava band) is played. Then everybody consumes puthari kalanji with honey, ghee and jaggery. The sickle is handed over to the head of the family, and one of the ladies leads the procession to the paddy fields, with a lighted lamp. The path leading to the field is also decorated.
The milk and honey carried in the puthari basket is placed in the field awaiting harvesting. A gunshot is fired with shouting 'Poli Poli Deva' by the spectators. Poli literally means prosperity. Then the symbolic harvesting of the crops starts.
