Makar Sankranti is an extremely promising day in Indian Traditions

आदिदेव नमस्तुभ्यं प्रसीद मम भास्कर! दिवाकर नमस्तुभ्यं प्रभाकर नमोऽस्तु ते!!

The mention of this festival is in the Rigveda which dates more than 5000 years. The day marks the beginning of the auspicious six-month period known as Uttarayana. This period of time is considered to be very special for ritual practices. Many devotees take a dip in the sacred Ganges. The history of Makar Sankranti is very special. Every year Indians(mostly) celebrate Makar Sankranti with devotion towards the Sun god. They make sweets and dishes out of sesame as sesame warms the body and helps to work even in the cold winter of January. The sesame also symbolizes peace, joy, and unity.

Makara sankranti in Delhi and Haryana:

Makara Sankranti is celebrated with lots of love, devotion and family bonding in Delhi and Haryana, and there it is called Sakraat. All the brothers visit their married sisters and gift them warm clothes, sweets. The wives also gift their in-laws as a mark of love and respect. It is celebrated as a festival of love, bonding, sharing, caring and respect for each other. Friends and relatives gather in one place and celebrate it together with much excitement and fun.

Uttarayan in Gujrat:

Makara Sankranti is celebrated very specially in Gujarat and the state also witnesses a special International Kite Flying festival. After morning prayers and puja, people gather on terrace tops with their colourful kites. There are lots of kite games and competitions go on. Phrases like “Kai po che” is said to taunt the losing side. People feed each other sweets like chikki made of sesame seeds and peanuts and a special preparation of Undhiyu (a mix of winter vegetables). The state celebrates the festival uniquely.

Magha Saaji – Himachal Pradesh

Saaji is the local word for Sankranti and Magha is the name of the month, so it’s called Magha Saaji. People welcome spring by taking a holy dip in the rivers or bathe in holy water. They visit their friends and relatives, share sweets like chikki or khichdi and ghee (clarified butter). The locals also visit temples to offer prayers and seek God’s blessings, do a lot of charity and give donations on this day. The evening is celebrated with singing folk songs and performing dances.

Poush Parbon – West Bengal:

Poush Parbon is celebrated in West Bengal with mouth-watering sweets and aroma of fresh cut/harvested rice. Til ladoo, coconut ladoos, maalpoaa are some of the sweet treats from the state. The festival falls on the last day of the Hindu month of Poush and marks the beginning of Magha. Hence, it is named after the month. Special palm jaggery is used to prepare sweets and delicacies. Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped on the day of Sankranti. West Bengal famous, the Ganga Sagar carnival starts. It is an auspicious day, and people take holy dips and come to the confluence of river Ganges and Bay of Bengal to take holy bath before dawn and worship Lord Shiva and Goddess Ganga.

Pongal – Tamil Nadu:

Tamil Nadu celebrates Pongal consecutively for 4 days and each day has a special significance. On the first day, people clean and decorate their houses, wear new clothes and dump the unwanted old things. On the second day, that is the main Pongal day, people celebrate by having various sweets and sweet rice preparations. The rice is boiled with milk and jaggery and allowed to boil over the pot. The minute the rice boils over, there is a special cry uttered and Pongal is celebrated. The rice is offered to God and then shared by the people. The other two days involve worshipping the cattle and visiting the relatives with sweets and gifts.

In Odisha:

In Odisha, any festival is first to be celebrated at Puri in Jagannath Temple. Makara Sankranti is observed as Uttarayana Yatra & Uttarayana Vandapanna of Lord Jagannath with lots of love, devotion and infinite faith, people offer a special kind of newly harvested rice and sugarcane mixed with jaggery, grated coconut, banana, crushed ginger, chenna (cheese), various fruits, dry fruits and milk called “Makara Chaula” and offer it as prasad, or bhog to the deity, to Surya or Sun God.

Sakraat or Khichdi – Bihar and Jharkhand:

The festival is a 2-day festival in Bihar and Jharkhand where the people take holy dips in the river, ponds early in the morning and then have bonfires into which they offer sesame seeds. Sweets are prepared with sesame seeds and jaggery, a special sweet tilgud made of sesame seeds and jaggery. The womenfolk in villages come together and celebrate the festival while cooking khichdi which is a one-pot dish prepared out of rice cooked in with vegetables which is a very healthy and yummy dish.

Makara Sankranti – Andhra Pradesh and Telangana:

In Andhra and Telangana, Makara Sankranti is a 4-day festival and is celebrated with a lot of excitement. The families come together and celebrate it with a lot of sweets and in traditional ways. The first day is Bhoghi, second Makara Sankranti, third is Kanuma and fourth is Mukkanuma. The traditions and celebrations on each day are different, while the first three days a strict vegetarian diet is followed.

Ghughuti or Kale Kauva (Black crow) – Uttarakhand

In Uttarakhand, Makara Sankranti is celebrated as the festival of welcoming the migratory birds as they believe it is the season for the birds to end their painful migration to return home and it’s their homecoming. The locals give khichdi and other food as charity and organise fairs and visit each other. Sweetmeats are made out of sweetened flour (flour and jaggery/gur) deep fried in ghee by giving them different shapes like a sword, knife, drum etc. and those are strung together and an orange is put in the middle and children wear those as garlands to attract crows, birds, and offer those sweets to crows and birds as a blessing for the migratory birds on their return back to home. Puri, vade, puwe are also cooked and fed to crows early in the morning. The child who is able to feed the crow first is considered as lucky.

Suggi – Karnataka

Suggi is the harvest festival of Karnataka celebrated mainly by farmers and the women. The women visit each other’s houses in a ritual known as Ellu Birodhu and they carry a plate of offerings containing sesame seeds and jaggery, and other nuts like fried groundnuts and coconut, sugar-cane pieces and sweets with them for exchange. Women also make rangolis outside their homes and decorate the cattle with colourful decorations and paint their horns.

Magha Saaji – Himachal Pradesh

Saaji is the local word for Sankrant and Magha is the name of the month and the sun-sign (Capricorn) that commences with the arrival of the festival. The day signals a change in seasons and people welcome spring by taking a dip in the rivers or bathe in holy water. They visit their neighbours and share sweets like chikki or khichdi and ghee (clarified butter). The locals also visit temples and do a lot of ch