The delicious blend of til-gud works in any and every form.
Growing up as a young girl in Chandigarh, I remember winter being mild and warm, thanks to the many festivals we celebrated, particularly in December and January. The season was all about finding one more excuse to fill my mouth with gud (jaggery) and other gud-related desserts—gajak, revris, halwa, and the like.
While these sweets are woven deeply into my childhood memories and the winter season, they also transport me to an especially cherished celebration: Lohri. For me, the warmth of these treats is inseparable from this Punjabi festival, observed on the evening before Makar Sankranti. Lohri marks the end of winter and the start of spring. Makar Sankranti, also known as the kite-flying festival, is celebrated nationwide and is considered one of the most auspicious days on the Hindu calendar, marking the transition of the Sun from Sagittarius to Capricorn.
Lohri, in particular, marks the beginning of longer, warmer days and closely aligns with the agricultural rhythm of Punjab and nearby regions. This connection is highlighted by the timing of the festival, which coincides with the harvesting of the rabi crop—especially sugarcane and wheat—making it a moment to give thanks for abundance and survival through the coldest days of winter.
Reflecting this spirit of gratitude, people gather around a bonfire, offering moongphalli (peanuts), revri, phulla (popcorn), and gajak to the flames. This ritual honours both nature and the sun’s northward journey. Beyond a seasonal ritual, Lohri reflects a collective pause—an acknowledgement of labour, warmth, and togetherness at a time when food, fire, and people matter the most. In the chilly North Indian winter, don’t we all just need an excuse to spend time around an open fire?
And the only thing more synonymous with Lohri than the sacred bonfire is til-gud (made with sesame and jaggery), which is enjoyed widely across numerous parts of India during the festival. In fact, the word ‘Lohri’ has evolved from ‘Tilohri’, which is a conjunction of til (sesame) and rohri (jaggery).
Sesame And Jaggery As Winter Staples
The pairing of sesame (til) and jaggery (gud) during Makar Sankranti and Lohri is not accidental. These ingredients are valued because they boost warmth and energy, which are essential for the winter chills. Their popularity is rooted in both seasonal traditions and their nutritional effectiveness.
Winter, especially in North and West India, is marked by colder temperatures that tend to slow digestion, thereby increasing the body’s need for warmth that comes from within, and sustained energy. Sesame seeds are considered ushna (heat-producing) in Ayurveda. This means that they help generate body heat, improve circulation, and support joint health, which is why they are especially consumed (in heavy quantities) during the colder months of the year. Meanwhile, jaggery is a relatively slow-releasing source of energy, rich in iron and minerals, and is believed to aid digestion while also warming the body from within.
Revdis are one of the most-loved sweets of til-gud
These ingredients are also rich in nutraceutical qualities, bringing the best of food and medicine together in one, and help fortify the body during this time of seasonal transition. Combined with other ingredients like dried fruits, nuts, spices, grains, and milk, the duo yields a myriad of sweet delicacies with distinct regional accents.
Together, til and gud create a balance—dense for the body, nourishing, and restorative. This makes them ideal ingredients to consume when the body is adjusting to the cold and the demands of the harvest season. These ingredients became seasonal staples because they matched the climate and were consumed long before modern nutritional science could reason it.
The Seasonality Of Til And Gud
Both ’til’ and ‘gud’ are also significant of the agricultural cycles that lead to the celebration of Makar Sankranti and Lohri. For agrarian communities across India, this marks a moment of hope, renewal, and a gradual shift towards a new cycle of growth. It is a shedding of all that was, and the acceptance of everything new that will be.
Sesame is a hardy crop sown toward the end of the monsoon and harvested in the winter months, while sugarcane—used to make jaggery—reaches maturity around the same time. Their availability during January is, hence, no coincidence; til and gud are, quite literally, products of the season they’re known to celebrate.
The festival of Lohri, hence, also functions as a thanksgiving ritual for the earth’s yield. It honours fire, fertility, and the labour of farmers. Offering til-gud preparations during this time becomes symbolic, almost consuming what the land has just provided, at its freshest.
A traditional Lohri celebration.
Similarly, in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and parts of Karnataka, til-gud sweets are often exchanged and given as gifts during the Sankranti. This is a way of acknowledging the harvest and our shared dependence on seasonal produce.
In Maharashtra, particularly, Makar Sankranti is famously associated with the phrase “Til-gul ghya ani god god bola”—an invitation to share sesame and jaggery and speak kindly to one another. That is exactly what I love about the spirit of these festivals. They reflect the festivals’ larger intent: to mark a seasonal shift not just in the agricultural calendar, but also in social relationships.
Sakranti in Maharashtra is celebrated by the exchange of tilgul vadis, which are dense little sweets made by setting cooked sesame and jaggery into moulds. Often flavoured and spiced with cardamom or nutmeg, these are sometimes finished with a garnish of grated coconut. Lastly, another much-loved delicacy in Maharashtra is tilachi poli, a festive favourite made with crisp, fried flatbreads filled with a mixture of sesame and jaggery, enhanced with poppy seeds and fragrant spices like cardamom.
Thanks to their deep-seated significance, over time, til-gud have evolved into more than just ingredients. Their presence signals not only a festival but also a moment in the farming cycle. Scarcity begins to ease, granaries fill, and communities pause to celebrate abundance and continuity.
Food on Makar Sankranti and Lohri has always served as a marker of spending quality time with those around us. Til-gud sits at the very heart of this idea. The sweet is rarely prepared for one household alone. Instead, it is made in batches meant to be exchanged, offered, and passed along to anyone and everyone we meet—even strangers.
Maharashtra’s famous tilachi poli.
This act of exchange also reinforces the spirit of community life, especially in agrarian societies, where cooperation is deemed much more essential than in urban areas of the country. Neighbours visit each other’s homes. Elders distribute sweets to children. The otherwise rigid social hierarchies soften, if only momentarily, during the act of giving and receiving. In this way, til-gud becomes more than festive food. It becomes a binding agent that uses taste to renew relationships and collectively welcome a more hopeful season ahead.
