The Harvest Festival: Happy Pongal/Sankranti!

Most of us celebrate Makar Sankranti in some form or the other. Be it Sankranti or Bhogali Bihu, Uttarayan or Pongal, it's just another reason to celebrate, isn't it?! Well, we do celebrate, but do we know why we do? And what about the various things we do and eat on this day?

The day marks the movement of the sun into Makara (Capricorn); in other words, it is the Winter Solstice. Every year, it is celebrated on the 14th of January. Spiritually, the festival is dedicated to the Sun-god, Surya. In practice though, this day marks the harvest festival on a pan-India basis. There are regional variations of the festival. Some of the regions celebrate the festival by praying to cows, and having poojas related to the festival, and some celebrate in other ways, one of the most marked being the kite-festival in Gujarat (Uttarayan) and Karnataka (Makar Sankramana).

There are, of course, some things that are similar in all festivals, and that is the food. In each region, some delicacies are prepared, specifically for the festival. InAndhra Pradesh/Telangana, a special bhojanam is prepared. In many areas in Central and Northern India, a sweet made with sesame seeds and jaggery is an essential to the festival. In Tamil Nadu, Pongal, incidentally a namesake of the festival itself, is prepared, both of the sweet and savoury variety, called Ven Pongal and Chakkara Pongal.

In Punjab, the festival is celebrated as Maghi, and is a cultural and religious festival. A mela or fair is held in Sri Muktsar Sahib. People celebrate with Bhangra and food traditional to the festival. As in many states, a very important part of the day is sugarcane. Like in Gujarat (Uttarayan), Rajasthan's Sankrat too sees its share of kite-flying, especially in the larger cities like Jaipur. It is celebrated with Rajasthani delicacies like gajak and ghevar.

In Odisha, people harvest and offer raw banana, rice and other such produce to Gods and Goddesses. In Puri, the Lord Jagannatha temple sees a lot of festivities too as the festival is celebrated with pomp and ceremony. Tribal groups celebrate by dancing, eating their particular food together and lighting bonfires. In Uttarakhand, the festival is held with great gusto, and there is a fair in the month of January. Maharashtrians celebrate Sankranti by exchanging multicolored halwa and making puran poli.

Uttar Pradesh celebrates the day as Kicheri, with kite flying, as well as exchanging til ke laddoos. Even the songs of joy sung on this festival talk of the kites and til that are an integral part of the festivities. In Bengal, Sankranti or Poush Sankranti is celebrated with the freshly harvested paddy, and date palm jaggery, which is combined to make Pitha. Goddess Lakshmi is normally worshipped on this day.

So, what are you waiting for? Go and celebrate the day as you normally do! Be it flying kites or eating til-ke-laddoos!

Credits:

| -RD- |

| ..Ramya.. | Radhikerani |

| Ranbirrocks | ...OohLaLa... | OtakuGirl-Debo |

Also thanks to pancakes for the lovely graphics,

and Haal-e-Dil