Lohri Di Raat Tambola Tickets

Lohri di raat tambola is the bonfire-night housie for Lohri: a bonfire, rewri, popcorn, peanuts and bhangra fill the ticket, and six prizes from Lohri Five to the Happy Lohri full house. You will find the free pack, an online game, a prize ladder, a planner for 15 to 60 guests and a run sheet for a Lohri evening below.

What you will see on a Lohri Di Raat ticket

Picture the courtyard on a cold January night: the fire crackling, a steel plate of sweets going round, someone already pulling the youngsters into bhangra. That is what we tried to fit onto a single card. Each Lohri Di Raat ticket has an arched outline, a “Happy Lohri” medallion and five illustrated panels holding three numbers apiece.

• Bonfire: the Lohri fire itself, the heart of the evening.
• Rewri: small discs of sesame and jaggery, the sweet everyone tosses into the flames.
• Popcorn: another offering for the fire, and the snack children grab by the fistful.
• Peanuts: roasted moongphali, still in their shells.
• Bhangra: a dhol and a dancer mid-jump.

So instead of “Did anyone get 47?”, the room starts asking “Who has finished their peanuts?” That small change is what makes Lohri theme tambola feel like part of the festival rather than a random game squeezed in.

Ready-to-print Lohri Di Raat Tambola pack

12 different picture tickets (2 on each A4 page) with a caller sheet, a prize sheet and a rules page. Print it as it is, or press Create your tambola ticket above for more tickets and your own party name.

Download the free PDF

Six prizes, all from the Lohri plate

Read these out before the first number so nobody argues later.

• Lohri Five: any 5 numbers marked, from anywhere on the ticket. Usually the quickest prize.
• Lohri Treats: every number in both the Rewri and Peanuts panels, six in all.
• Popcorn Party: the three Popcorn numbers.
• Aag Sekna: the three Bonfire numbers. “Aag sekna” is Punjabi for warming yourself by the fire, which is exactly what the winner gets to do first.
• Bhangra Paao: the three Bhangra numbers. “Bhangra paao” simply means “dance the bhangra”, so the winner owes the room a few steps.
• Happy Lohri Full House: all 15 numbers.

Since every block of six tickets shares out 1 to 90 with no repeats, prizes tend to spread across the group instead of landing with one lucky cousin.

Running a Lohri tambola around the fire

Lohri falls in mid-January, the night before Maghi, and is celebrated mostly across Punjab and north India. The Wikipedia article on Lohri gives the background on the bonfire, the folk songs and the harvest links.

Timing

Light the fire first and let people do the parikrama (walking around the flames) and throw in their til, rewri and popcorn. Start Lohri theme tambola once everyone has a plate and has settled into a chair close to the warmth. Wrap up before dinner is served, or play the Full House over dessert.

Seating and safety

Arrange chairs in a horseshoe facing the fire, but keep a comfortable gap. Paper tickets and dry dupattas do not mix well with flying sparks. Hand out clipboards or thick cardboard sheets so people can mark on their laps, and give everyone a pen rather than a dauber that may freeze or smudge in the cold.

Dress code

Phulkari dupattas, Patiala salwars, bright pagdis (turbans) and warm shawls look lovely in photos by firelight. You could give a small extra prize to the best-dressed couple.

Prize ideas

• A tin of gajak or a box of rewri for Lohri Treats.
• A packet of microwave popcorn and a fun bowl for Popcorn Party.
• Woollen socks, gloves or a hot water bag for Aag Sekna.
• A small dhol keychain or a Punjabi music playlist on a gift card for Bhangra Paao.
• A shawl or a dry fruit hamper for the Full House.

First Lohri in the family?

Many families make a big occasion of a baby’s or a new bride’s first Lohri. If that is your reason to gather, put the baby’s name or the couple’s names in the party name field, so it prints on every ticket. Guests often keep them as a memento.

Play Lohri Di Raat tambola online

Relatives in Canada, the UK or another Indian city can join from their own phones. Create a game, share the link, and the numbers are called out automatically while each guest’s ticket marks itself.

Printing for an outdoor night

Outdoor light is patchy, so choose one or two tickets per page so the numbers print large. Color looks best, but black and white is easier to read under a yellow bulb. Print the caller sheet too: if the speaker is drowned out by the dhol, the caller can hold it up and show the number.

A fun variation: every time a Bonfire number is called, the person nearest the fire throws in a pinch of til. It slows the game a little, and that is rather the point on Lohri.

For more illustrated sets, start at the theme tambola collection. Our monsoon tambola page is another seasonal game you can bring out for a rainy-day get-together, and if your Lohri party carries on with music, the Band Baaja Baraat tambola tickets share the same dhol energy. For a plain number game you can host from a phone, see online classic tambola.

Lohri theme tambola: why this theme works

Lohri is a winter festival celebrated in January, especially in Punjab, with a bonfire, songs, sweets and snacks such as popcorn, peanuts, rewri and gajak. Families and neighbors gather around the fire, throw offerings into it and dance bhangra late into the evening.

A tambola game works well before the bonfire is lit or while the snacks are served. The five pictures are the evening’s elements: the bonfire, the rewri, the popcorn, the peanuts and bhangra, and the prize names, such as Aag Sekna (“warming by the fire”), match the mood.

Here is how lohri theme tambola fits a Lohri party: the pictures need no explanation, the prizes give the host lines to announce, and the whole game fits comfortably around the other events of the day.

How to play lohri di raat tambola step by step

The rules of lohri di raat tambola are the rules of ordinary tambola, with pictures instead of rows. Here is the whole game in six steps, using the prize names printed on the sheet:

1. Hand out the tickets. Give each player one ticket and read the prize list aloud, starting with Lohri Five and ending with Happy Lohri Full House.
2. Call the numbers. The host calls numbers from 1 to 90 in random order, or lets the online game call them.
3. Mark your pictures. Each player strikes off the numbers on their ticket, and each picture holds three of them.
4. Claim a prize. The first player to complete a pattern shouts the prize name, such as “Lohri Treats!”, before the next number is called.
5. Check the claim. The host reads the numbers back against the caller sheet. A wrong claim loses that ticket the prize.
6. Finish with the full house. The game ends when a player marks all fifteen numbers and wins Happy Lohri Full House.

New players learn lohri di raat tambola in about two minutes, because the pictures show them what to look for. If the group has never played tambola, our guide on how to play tambola explains the classic version.

Lohri di raat tambola: the prize ladder in numbers

Every prize in lohri di raat tambola needs a different number of marked numbers, so the prizes arrive in a predictable order. We simulated 3,000 games with 30 tickets, which is 5 sets of six, and recorded the call on which each prize was first completed. The table shows the median, with the middle half of games alongside:

With 30 tickets the first five arrives on about call 12, and the full house on about call 72, so the whole ladder runs over 60 calls, or about 10 minutes at 10 seconds a call. A one-picture prize arrives around call 27, and a two-picture prize around call 50, so most of the excitement happens in the middle of the game. When you plan lohri di raat tambola, announce the prizes in the order they are likely to be won, and keep the biggest for last.

Lohri tambola tickets: how many to print and how long a game lasts

This planner answers the question behind lohri tambola tickets: how many to print and how long the game lasts. For a Lohri party, the right number of tickets depends on how many guests want to play. This planner rounds up to whole sets of six and uses the same simulation as above for each size of group. One ticket for each player is the usual choice, and you can print a few spares for latecomers:

For 15 guests, print 18 tickets (3 sets of six) and expect the full house around call 74, which is about 12.3 minutes of calling. For 60 guests you need 60 tickets and the full house arrives around call 69.

The bigger the group, the earlier each prize is won, because more tickets are in play: the first five comes on call 13 with 15 guests but on call 11 with 60. That is why lohri di raat tambola stays quick even at a large Lohri party, and why it suits a short slot in the program.

What one ticket looks like during lohri di raat tambola

A ticket holds 15 of the 90 numbers, which is one sixth of them, so on average it has one sixth of the numbers called so far marked. By call 30 a typical ticket has 5 of its 15 numbers marked:

That is the average ticket, though. With 30 tickets in play, the best ticket reaches five marked numbers on call 12, and the best ticket completes all fifteen on call 72, long before an average ticket does. This gap between the average and the best ticket explains why the prizes in lohri di raat tambola are won so much earlier than the table above suggests.

Lohri party games: a ready-made run sheet

Here is how lohri party games runs on the day. Here is a run sheet for lohri di raat tambola that fits 90 minutes. The times are suggestions; stretch the snack break or shorten a round to suit your Lohri party.

The tambola rounds take 45 of the 90 minutes, which leaves room for food, photos and conversation. If you only have half the time, play one round and keep lohri di raat tambola for the full house, since the biggest prize makes the best ending.

Prize ideas for lohri di raat tambola: a gift for every pattern

Match the gift to the pattern: small gifts for the quick prizes and the best gift for the full house. These ideas fit a Lohri party:

Decor and dress ideas to go with the prizes:

• A bonfire or a fire pit set up safely
• Pots of popcorn, peanuts and rewri
• Bright phulkari dupattas
• Dhol beats on the speaker

Keep the prizes simple, wrap them in the theme colors and put them on a table where everyone can see them before the first call. A prize table in view keeps interest high all through lohri di raat tambola.

Three twists to try with lohri di raat tambola

A small twist makes the game feel planned. Pick one, or use all three across the rounds of lohri di raat tambola, and lohri di raat tambola stays quick whichever you choose.

Bhangra paao

The winner of Bhangra Paao leads the first steps of a bhangra circle.

Fire safety card

Keep a bucket of water nearby and let an adult supervise the bonfire.

Peanut count

Guess how many peanuts are in the jar; the closest guess wins.

If you like lohri di raat tambola, you may also enjoy Diwali Dhamaka Tambola, Rang Barse Holi Tambola, Teej Ki Bahaar Tambola, or browse the whole theme tambola collection.