Ugadi (Yugadi), "the beginning of the age", is the lunar New Year of the Telugu and Kannada communities of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, kept on the first day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra (March-April), the same day observed as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra. It marks the start of a new year in the lunisolar calendar and is regarded as an especially auspicious time for new beginnings. Homes are cleaned and decorated with mango-leaf garlands (toranam) and rangoli, new clothes are worn, and families gather.
Its signature custom is the Ugadi pachadi, a preparation combining six tastes, the bitterness of neem, the sweetness of jaggery, the sourness of tamarind, the heat of chilli, the saltiness of salt, and the astringency of raw mango, eaten as an emblem that the coming year, like life, will hold sorrow and joy, difficulty and delight, all to be accepted together; it is one of the most eloquent food-symbols in the Hindu calendar. The day is also traditionally when the panchangam, the new year's almanac, is read aloud in temples and homes, forecasting the year for each birth-sign, so that Ugadi joins the acceptance of the year's mixed fortunes to a formal looking-ahead at what it may bring.