Next: about 17 Aug 2027
Raksha Bandhan sweets
Sisters tie a rakhi on their brothers' wrists and feed them a sweet, very often kalakand, ras malai or a chhena sweet.
Cheeses for Raksha Bandhan sweets
On Raksha Bandhan a sister ties a thread, the rakhi, on her brother's wrist, puts a sweet in his mouth and receives a promise of protection and a gift in return. The sweet is chosen with some care, and milk sweets are the favourites in North and East India: kalakand, the moist fudge of milk and chhena; ras malai; and chhena sweets such as rasgulla and sandesh. Many families make the sweet at home the day before, curdling the milk with lemon juice to make fresh chhena. Sweet shops prepare for weeks, and the day is one of the biggest of their year.
The cheeses
Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Raksha Bandhan" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Paneer: Sonja Pauen - Stanhopea, CC BY 2.0 de, source
- Chhena: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source