15 Lohri story ideas, each one a book your child stars in: Punjab's winter bonfire night: rewri, gajak and popcorn tossed into the flames, dhol beats and 'Sundar Mundriye' sung door to door. Pick one, add a few details, and the illustrated book starts right away.
Every story is painted in a soft, hand-drawn watercolour look, with your child in festive Lohri dress.
LohriThe Lohri bonfire in the village square is stacked with wood, and it is Your child's turn to put the first log on because the family has a new baby cousin this year. But the pile is too high and the log too heavy. Instead of pretending, Your child asks Dadaji to lift together. Four hands place the log, the flames leap, and the whole square roars 'Sundar Mundriye ho!' as the popcorn goes in.
Lesson: Asking for help is part of doing something big
LohriIt is the afternoon before Lohri and the mohalla children go door to door singing 'Sundar Mundriye ho!' for rewri, gajak and coins. Your child is the smallest and forgets the words halfway. The older boys groan. At the next door, Your child takes a breath, bangs the steel plate like a dhol and sings the whole song, even the bit about Dulla Bhatti. The aunty gives an extra fistful of peanuts just for the drumming.
Lesson: Forgetting once is not a reason to stop singing
LohriBy the bonfire, Nana tells how Dulla Bhatti, the hero of Punjab, rescued two girls from bandits long ago and married them off with honour, giving sugar from his own bag, which is why every Lohri song remembers him. Your child listens hard. The next day at school, a new girl is being teased for her patched sweater. Your child sits beside her at lunch and shares the tiffin of gajak, loudly, so everyone can see.
Lesson: A hero is anyone who stands beside someone being treated unfairly
LohriIt is the first Lohri of Your child's baby brother, and the house is full of relatives bringing rewri and sweets for him. Nobody is talking about anything else. Your child feels small and sulky in the corner. Then Bua asks who will hold the baby by the fire while the dhol plays. Your child steps forward, wraps him in the phulkari, and everyone circles them both. The baby's first Lohri becomes Your child's proudest one.
Lesson: Making room for someone new makes you bigger, not smaller
LohriNani is popping maize on the iron tawa for the Lohri fire and the kernels just sit there, hard and yellow. Nani says the tawa is not hot enough and the cousins wander off. Your child stays, stacks more dung cakes under the tawa, covers it with a steel plate, and waits. Pop, pop, and then a storm of white. Your child fills the basket to the brim and carries it, warm, to the bonfire.
Lesson: Patience and a little more heat get most things going
LohriChachaji's farm outside Ludhiana is holding Lohri in the sugarcane field, because Lohri thanks the winter harvest. Your child is asked to cut a sugarcane stalk for the fire but the knife slips and the stalk falls into the irrigation channel. Instead of hiding it, Your child wades in, fishes it out, and asks Chachaji to show the right grip. The second cut is clean, and Your child carries the stalk to the fire like a flag.
Lesson: Learning the right way beats hiding the wrong way
LohriJust as the bhangra is about to begin, the dhol strap snaps and the drummer cannot hold the dhol while he plays. Everyone stands around waiting. Your child runs home, unties the rope from the swing and races back. Then, because the drummer cannot tie it and play, Your child holds the dhol steady against the chest for the whole first song. The drummer bows to Your child at the end.
Lesson: Look for the job nobody else is doing
LohriWhile everyone is dancing round the Lohri fire, Your child spots a puppy shivering under the parked tractor, too scared of the dhol to come near the warmth. Your child sits on the cold ground a little way from the flames, holding out a piece of roti, and waits, not moving, through three whole songs. When the puppy finally creeps into Your child's lap, the dancers make a circle round them both.
Lesson: Warmth reaches the frightened only if you go slowly
LohriBhaiya and the new bhabhi are celebrating their first Lohri, and tradition says the bride throws the first rewri into the fire. But bhabhi is shy and does not know the family songs. Your child slips a hand into hers and whispers, 'I will sing, you throw.' The two walk round the fire together, Your child singing 'Sundar Mundriye' at the top of the voice, and bhabhi throwing sesame, rewri and popcorn into the sparks.
Lesson: Two shy people together can be brave
LohriThe family is on the crowded bus to Jalandhar for Lohri with a big bag of rewri and gajak from the sweet shop in Amritsar. The bus breaks down and everyone is cold and grumbling on the roadside. Your child climbs onto a rock, opens the bag and hands round the rewri to every passenger, the driver and the conductor. A man with a dholki starts a beat, and the roadside turns into a Lohri party.
Lesson: A little sweet handed round turns strangers into a celebration
LohriThe Lohri dinner is sarson da saag with makki di roti and a pat of white butter, the best meal of the year. As Your child carries plates to the terrace, the building watchman, Ram Singh, is seen sitting alone in his box with a cold tiffin. Your child fills a fresh plate, adds an extra pat of butter and a jaggery piece, and carries it down without asking anyone. Ram Singh joins the family by the fire that night.
Lesson: A festival feast has room for one more plate
LohriA thick January fog rolls over the village, so thick that the cousins cannot find their way from Mamaji's house to the bonfire ground. Your child remembers the sound of the dhol and says, 'Close your eyes and follow the beat.' Holding hands in a line, the children walk towards the drumming, step by step, until the orange glow appears in the white. They arrive just as the first peanuts are tossed in.
Lesson: When you cannot see the way, listen for it
LohriAt the Lohri mela Your child is given twenty rupees and races to the gajak stall. At the counter, the gajak wala's little son is counting change wrong and a customer is shouting. Your child knows the sums from school, steps beside the boy, and quietly counts out the coins with him until the customer nods. The gajak wala refuses Your child's money and gives a whole slab of til gajak, still warm.
Lesson: Helping someone count is worth more than what you can buy
LohriEvery year the whole family dances bhangra round the Lohri fire and every year Your child hides behind Amma, sure of tripping. This year, Dadi cannot dance because of her knee and sits alone on the charpai. Your child takes her hands and dances in front of her, shoulders bouncing, arms up, making her laugh so hard she claps the beat. It turns out nobody is watching feet at all.
Lesson: Dance for someone else and you forget to be shy
LohriThe songs are over and the fire has burned down to red embers, and everyone drifts home to sleep. Your child notices the wind picking up and dry leaves blowing towards the glow. Tired as anything, Your child fetches a bucket from the hand pump, wakes Papa, and together they pour water and stir the ashes until every ember goes dark. Dadaji says the next morning that the best Lohri is the one that ends safely.
Lesson: A celebration is not over until it is safely put to bed
Celebrated on 13 January 2026