On this big occasion of Makar Sankranti in India,
which is a festive country.
Many mela or fairs are organised.
The Magha Mela (or mini-Kumbh Mela
held annually at Prayag).
Makar Mela in Odisha, Tusu Mela also called as Tusu
Porab is celebrated in many parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Poush Mela is an annual fair and festival that takes place in Santinketan in Birbhum district of West Bengal.
The festival or Makar Sankranti is celebrated
for four days in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana:
Day 2 – Makara Sankranti the main festival day.
Day 3 – Kanuma (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).
Day 4 — Mukkanuma (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).
Special bhojanam (feast) are a
part of Andhra tradition (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states).
The day preceding Makara Sankranti is called
Bhoghi.
This is when people discard old and derelict things and concentrate on
new things causing change or transformation.
At dawn, people light a bonfire with logs
of wood, other solid fuels and wooden furniture that are no longer useful.
In Goa -
Known as Sankrant in Goa
and like in the rest of the country.
People distribute sweets in the form of
granules of sugar-coated till pulses among family members and friends, with the
words, Till
gull gheiat, godd uloiat, meaning Eat
seasame and jaggery and sweeten your talk.
12-day
Haldi Kumkum festival begins on Makar Sankranti, married women celebrate the
festival till Rath Saptmi.
Married women visit each other's homes
where the women apply Haladi (turmeric)
and Kumkum (vermilion) to the
foreheads of other women and put flowers in their hair, and offer them
household gifts.
Newly married women offer five sunghat or small clay pots with
black beaded threads tied around them, to the deity.
These pots are filled with
newly harvested food grains and are offered with betel leaves and areca nut.
Its observance takes place on a rather subdued note, unlike major festivals of
the region like Ganesh Chaturthi.
In Assam –
Magh Bihu (also called Bhogali
Bihu or Bihu.
Eating foods and enjoyment) or Maghar Domahi is a harvest festival celebrated in Assam, which marks the end of harvesting season in
the month of Magha (January–February).
It
is the Assam celebration of Makar Sankranti, with feasting lasting for a week.
The festival is marked by feasts and bonfires.
Young
people erect makeshift huts, known as Meji and Bhelaghar, from
bamboo, leaves and thatch.
And in Bhelaghar they eat the food prepared
for the feast, and then burn the huts the next morning.
The celebrations also
feature traditional Assamese games such as Tekeli Bhogna (pot-breaking)
and buffalo fighting.
During Magh Bihu people of Assam make cakes of rice with
various names such as Shunga Pitha, Til Pitha etc.
And some other sweets
of coconut called Laru or Laskara.
In Bihar and Jharkhand, the
festival is celebrated on 14–15 January.
On 15 January, it is celebrated as Makar
Sankranti or Sakrat or Khichdi (in local dialects).
As in other parts of
country, people take baths in rivers and ponds and feast upon seasonal
delicacies as a celebration of good harvest.
The delicacies include chura, made of rice, gur made of sugarcane
(jiggery), sweets made of til (sesame seeds) such as tilkut, Lai, tilwa, maska,
etc., curd, milk and seasonal vegetables.
Kite flying festivals are organised, albeit
on a small scale.
On 15 January, it is celebrated as Makrat
(in some parts of the state) when people relish special Khadi (dal-rice replete with cauliflower, peas and
potatoes).
The festival is one of the most important.
People start their day by worshiping and putting til (sesame seeds) into fire
followed by eating "dahi-chuda", a dish made of beaten rice (chuda or poha, in
Hindi, or avalakki, in Kannada) served with a larger serving of dahi (curd), with
cooked kohada (red pumpkin) that is prepared specially with sugar
and salt but no water.
The meal is generally accompanied by tilkut and lai,Laddu made of til, chuda and rice).
The festive meal is traditionally
made by women in groups.
Since the meal is heavy, lunch is generally skipped on
the day and the time is, instead, spent on socializing and participating in
kite flying festivals.
At night a special khichdi is made and served
with its four traditional companions, "char yaar" (four friends) — chokha (roasted
vegetable, especially Brinjal, Tomato and Potato), Papad, Ghee, Achar, Chokha (of baked Potato, Brinjal, Tomato).
Since such a rich
khichdi is generally made on this festival, the festival is often colloquially
referred to as "Khichdi".
In Delhi and Haryana -
Kayastha community which have been building
blocks of Delhi today and Other neighbouring rural communities like Yadavs,
Jats.
Which mainly belong to Haryana and Punjab consider Sakraat or Sankranti to
be a main festival of the year.
Churma of ghee, halwa (made in ghee with carrot and milk) and
kheer (made of rice and milk with sugar) are cooked specially in Jats and Yadavs
homes on this day.
One
brother of every married woman visits her home with a gift of some warm
clothing for her and her husband's family.
It is called "Sidha". Women used to
give a gift to their in-laws, and these rituals called "Manana".
The recipient will sit in a haweli (main palace where men sit together and
share hookka).
Women go to
haweli to sing folk songs and give gifts.
In Gujarat -
Uttarayan, as Makar Sankranti is called in
Gujarati, is a major festival in the state of Gujarat, which lasts
for two days.
14 January is Uttarayan
15 January is Vasi - Uttarayan (Stale Uttarayan).
Gujarati people keenly await this festival to
fly kites, called 'patang'.
Kites for Uttarayan are made of special
light-weight paper and bamboo and are mostly rhombus shaped with central spine
and a single bow.
The string often contains abrasives to cut down other
people's kites.
In Gujarat, from December through to Makar
Sankranti, people start enjoying Uttarayan.
Undhiyn (spicy, baked mix of winter vegetables) and chikkis (made from
til (sesame seeds), peanuts and jiggery) are the special festival
recipes savoured on this day.
In the major cities of Ahmadabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot,
and Jamnagar the skies appear filled with thousands upon thousands of kites as
people enjoy two full days of Uttarayan on their terraces.
In Kerala -
Makar Sankranti is celebrated in Kerala at Sabarimala temple.
Where the Makar Jyoti
is
visible followed by the Makaravilakku
celebrations.
In Uttarakhand -
In the Kumaon region of
Uttarakhand, Makar Sankranti is celebrated with great gusto.
The Uttarayani fair
is held in the month of January every year in Bageshwar.
The religious ritual
of the fair consists in bathing before daybreak at the confluence of Saryu and Gomati.
After Bathing, an offering of water to Lord SHIVA inside
the Bagnath Temple is
essential.
Those who are more religiously disposed,
continue this practice for three days in succession, which is known as "Trimaghi".
In
Maharashtra –
On
Makar Sankranti day people exchange multicoloured halwa (sugar granules coated in sugar syrup)
and til-gul laadoo (sweetmeats made from sesame seeds and jiggery).
Gulachi
poli/puran poli (flat bread stuffed with soft/shredded jaggery mixed with
toasted, ground til [white sesame seeds]) and some gram flour, which
has been toasted to golden in pure ghee, are offered for lunch.
While
exchanging til-gul
as tokens of goodwill people greet each other with the words til-gul ghyaa, aani
goad-goad bola" meaning ‘Accept this til-gul (sweet) and utter
sweet words’.
The underlying thought in the exchange of til-gul is to
forget the past ill-feelings and hostilities and resolve to speak sweetly and
remain friends.
Odisha
The festival is known as Makar Sankranti in Odisha.
Where
people prepare makar chaula
(uncooked
newly harvested rice, banana, coconut, Jiggery, Sesame, Rasgolla, Khai /Liaa and Chenna puddings for
naivedya to gods and goddesses.
The withdrawing winter entails a change in
food habits and intake of nourishing and rich food.
Therefore, this festival
holds traditional cultural significance.
It is astronomically important for
devotees who worship the sun god at the great Konark temple with fervour and
enthusiasm as the sun starts its annual swing northwards.
According to various
Indian calendars, the Sun's movement changes and the days from this day onwards
become lengthier and warmer and so the Sun-God is worshiped on this day as a
great benefactor.
Many individuals at the start of the day perform a ritual
bath while fasting.
The End.
