Bihari families make thekua for Chhath Puja, gujiya for Holi, and a number of other sweets across the year. Thekua is a pressed, fried sweet of whole wheat flour and jaggery, and gujiya is a half-moon pastry filled with roasted khoya or suji and dry fruits. Gujiya and pidukiya are the same sweet under different names. Which sweet belongs to which festival varies from family to family, but these two are the best known.
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Thekua: the sweet of Chhath
Thekua is the sacred offering of Chhath Puja, the festival of the Sun God. It is made from whole wheat flour, natural jaggery, green cardamom and ghee or oil, kneaded by hand and pressed in carved wooden moulds called sancha, then fried slowly until it is crisp. Families across Bihar and Jharkhand have made it for generations, and the tradition is described as more than five hundred years old.
It is spelled in several ways, including thekuwa and thekwa, and written ठेकुआ in Hindi. If you want to know more about the festival side of it, read about Chhath prasad thekua.
Gujiya, also called pidukiya
Gujiya is a delicate half-moon pastry with a crisp golden shell, cradling a rich, roasted filling studded with dry fruits. In our kitchen the filling is slow-roasted khoya (mawa) or coarsely roasted suji (semolina), with hand-chopped cashews, raisins, freshly grated coconut and cardamom, bound with a measure of sugar. The shell is made of refined flour, pressed thin, sealed by hand at the edges and fried in desi ghee.
Gujiya and pidukiya are the same sweet. In Bihar you will also hear it called pedakiya, padakiya and pidkiya, and written पिड़ुकिया in Hindi. If a family says it is making pidukiya for Holi, it is making gujiya.
How thekua and gujiya compare
The two sweets are very different in the mouth. Thekua is firm and crunchy, made of wheat flour and jaggery, and not very sweet. Gujiya has a thin, crisp shell and a soft, rich filling, and it is sweeter. One is a sweet you can keep in the tin for weeks; the other is meant to be eaten within days.
Their shelf lives show the difference. Desi ghee thekua stays fresh for 15–20 days and refined oil thekua for 45–60 days, while gujiya is best eaten within 7–10 days. Both are kept in an airtight container at room temperature.
They also differ in what they contain. Desi ghee thekua contains milk and wheat, and refined oil thekua contains wheat. Gujiya contains milk, wheat and cashews in both its khoya and suji versions. Anyone with allergies should ask before ordering either.
Other sweets families make for festivals
Bihar and Jharkhand have many festival sweets besides these two. Tilkut, made from sesame and jaggery or sugar, is associated with the winter festival of Makar Sankranti. Khaja is a layered, fried sweet, and anarsa is a rice-flour sweet; both are made for festivals as well. Malpua is another sweet that appears at celebrations.
We do not make these. We make thekua and gujiya, with namkeen, mathri and pickles, and we would rather tell you so than imply a longer menu. What we can tell you is how the sweets we do make compare with them: thekua is the plainer, longer-lasting sweet, and gujiya is the richer one.
A note on the names
The same sweet goes by different names from home to home, which can make searching confusing. Thekua is also spelled thekuwa and thekwa. Gujiya is also called pidukiya, pedakiya, padakiya and pidkiya. If you are looking for a sweet by one of these names, you are looking for the sweet described in this guide.
Spellings differ because the names are written down from speech, in more than one script, and no single spelling is the only correct one.
Putting together a festival plate
For a festival plate, put the sweets of the day at the centre and the plainer foods around them. A few pieces of thekua beside a few gujiya make a plate that has something crisp and plain and something rich, and a small bowl of namkeen gives the guests something savoury to come back to between sweets.
Serve it with tea, and let people help themselves. Sweets that are made to be shared are best shared.
Which sweet for which festival
Families differ, and this is a guide rather than a rule. As a starting point:
- Chhath Puja: thekua, as prasad.
- Holi: gujiya, also called pidukiya.
- Diwali: gujiya and thekua are both given as gifts, alongside namkeen.
- Raksha Bandhan: gujiya, in gift boxes.
- Weddings: gujiya in mithai boxes and thekua as return gifts.
Choosing festival sweets as gifts
A box that has both thekua and gujiya, with a little namkeen beside them, gives the person receiving it a taste of Bihar in several ways at once. We put such boxes together as gift hampers, and you can also order sweets one by one from our shop.
When you choose, think about the shelf life. Gujiya has the shortest, so it should arrive close to the festival, while thekua and namkeen can arrive earlier.
Ordering festival sweets in good time
Festival sweets are best ordered early. Gujiya is made fresh for the season and keeps for only 7–10 days, so order it a few days before the festival and tell us the date you need it by. Thekua keeps for longer, which gives you more room.
In every case, message us on WhatsApp with the type, the pack size (250gm or 500gm), the quantity and your pincode. We confirm the price and the delivery timing for your pincode, and we deliver across India.
If you want to start with the sweet of Holi, you can order gujiya online for Holi in khoya or suji.
This post is from the kitchen at BihariPakwan Foods. Read more about us and how we cook.