Why & How of Makar Sankranti Festival Celebration

Hey everyone
Today this post is mainly for our parents. Because we are responsible for the coming generation and only we can make them realize our traditions and traditional values.
Today it’s Makar Sankranti or khichdi or Pongal or uttarayan festival. It is the first festival of a new year.
So we first know why and we will discuss how
Spiritual points

Makar Sankranti is the festival when sun transit from one zone to another. Makar name is taken from makar Rashi i.e Capricorn Zodiac sign because sun starts moving in Makar(Capricorn) Rashi and there will be 6 months of uttarayan period. The sun moving in a northern hemisphere. This is the basic knowledge we must know.
So worshipping Sun Deity, Surya, Dipping into Holy rivers, distributing rice and pulses to the needy ones and flying kites and so on. This is all actually worshipping our nature and harvest. 
Also according to the Hindu Calendar, it is the 1st day of Magh month that celebrates the harvesting the new crops for farmers.
From now onwards, the day will be longer than the night that is the end of winter solace.
So this is the festival for so many reasons behind, what is yours tell me in the comment section?
Now how we celebrate this festival
So first, I will start with mine that is how this festival is celebrated in Varanasi Uttar Pradesh.
So in Varanasi people usually go to the Ganga ghat for dipping into Ganga or pour holy water at home early in the morning. And then worship God and The Sun.
After that, we donate something like rice, jaggery, til, pulses to the poor ones.
My mom actually makes us touch the donation of rice pulses sweets and then she gives to brahmans or pujaris.
Then we start eating the til jaggery laddoo and puffed rice jaggery laddoo etc in the breakfast.

Lunch will be poha and curd with jaggery & the Dinner will be khichdi.

There are so many ways of making khichdi

The best part is flying kites in the sky. The whole Varanasi full of sounds like Kate, bhaakate… . It was so much fun.

It really makes me smile while writing this article.
So this is how we celebrate generally in Varanasi.

There are different ways to celebrate in different parts of the country.
It is also known as Pongal in Tamil Nadu which means to boil and it is celebrated as Thanksgiving for the year’s harvest.
Here I am sharing this from Wikipedia just because you would know the different name of one festival. How we are celebrating one thing in different ways.

  • Suggi Habba, Makara Sankramana, Makara Sankranthi : Karnataka, Kerala
  • Makara Sankranti or Makara Mela and Makara Chaula : Odisha
  • Makara Sankranthi: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
  • MakarSankranti: Chhattisgarh, Goa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Sikkim,  Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Jammu
  • Thai Pongal, Uzhavar Thirunal: Tamil Nadu
  • Uttarayan: Gujarat
  • Maghi: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
  • Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu: Assam
  • Shishur Saenkraat: Kashmir Valley
  • Khichdi: Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar
  • Poush Sangkranti: West Bengal
  • Tila Sakrait: Mithila
In other countries too the day is celebrated by Hindus, but under different names and in different ways.
  • Nepal: Maghe Sankranti or Maghi- /Khichdi Sankranti
  • Bangladesh: Shakrain/ Poush Sangkranti
  • Pakistan (Sindh): Tirmoori
  • SriLanka : ThaiPongal
As I am a north Indian, so can’t explain the way of celebration in all of the above regions but would say one thing,

  please celebrate this festival in your way only. Know your way of celebration.

We, the parents, are not lesser responsible than our government for forgetting our traditions. We easily blame the government for everything but forget what we are doing. We are also equally responsible. 
The first thing we have to be aware of all kinds of festivals we celebrate according to our traditional values. If you celebrate all the festivals then it is fine but at least you must know your own version of celebration i.e. how our parents and grandparents celebrated all the festival.
Now I am sharing the scientific reasons behind this celebration.
As it is the end of winter season and our skin becomes dry during winters so we eat a mixture of groundnut, coconut, til and jaggery that makes our skin gains the oil lost and make our body to fight cold. 
To celebrate this festival and share your food with needy ones also. Make all the rituals so that our children can understand this festival and its values.
Here are some tips you can use for celebration with kids
there are so many ways 
1. Celebrating the way it is I have discussed. make khichdi, Pongal and til jaggery laddoo.

2. Fly kites with your family and friends.

3. If your child is too small, make a drawing or make a kite with crafts and stationary because at an early age kids love to draw and make. sharing my daughter’s creativity. She is just 2.5 years old. 



4. You can go outside like in Varanasi There is a grand celebration on ghats and It looks like heaven. 
So anything you can do at your level and traditions. 
Thank you.
So, How you are celebrating this festival, Comment below.

0 thoughts on “Why & How of Makar Sankranti Festival Celebration”

  1. Kristen Frolich

    How interesting! This is something I have never heard of before. Having an occasion to fly kites though is definitely my kind of celebration!

  2. Although we are Christian are celebration is more of gathering of family. For us our family is quite extended so it takes several visits and days it fit everyone in.

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