Makar Sankranti 2023: Pongal & Lohri - South Indian & North Indian Festival

Makar Sankranthi is celebrated on January 15th, 2023 in the “Śubhakṛta” year.

14th January – Bhogi
15th January – Sankranthi
16th January – Khanuma
17th January- Mukkanuma

Can we be an exception from being changed automatically without taking our consent? The answer is no because transition or movement is the other name of life. Life is all about movements and transformations. But have we ever thought about how life moves on?

How days becomes night and night becomes day and then a complete year goes off…how??? The answer is the Earth. Yes the same Earth on which we live, our universe exists. Like we live and walk on our own path in our daily life similarly our planet also moves on its own path. And the whole solar system moves on too. The sun, the moon everyone moves on.

Now, as we all know sun moves around all 9 planets and each planet of our solar system has some connection with the Zodiac signs as per Babylonian or roman or Greek methodologies. It is said that each month the sun moves from one phase to another unmarked but one of the most important movements of the earth is known as makar Sankranti.

Makar Sankranti

It is the most important festival being celebrated all together in India because it is the only festival which is celebrated as per the solar calendar. It’s said that when the sun enters the northern part of its a celestial path or towards the Capricorn (Makarrashi/Saturn) then we celebrate makar Sankranti. This festival is very important in terms of our solar system transitions, as it happens on the 14th of January every year and its said that it moves in the UTTARAYAN for a period of 6 months and is also known as UTTARYAN PERIOD. 14th January is marked as the start of the spring season in India. This period also marks the start of the spring season as winter goes off after a chilling December all over. This festival embarks the reaping of our cultivation done in the previous year and to taste the new food so this festival is also known as the harvest festival.

Makar Sankranti is celebrated in every Indian state on the same day 14th January every year despite being recognized by different names and shows the world that India is a country which preaches many cultures and traditions. It has different names, different celebrations but unity, love, and respect lies in common and altogether. In this festival not only the new harvest is being celebrated but the farmers and their animals are also celebrated as they are the only ones who helped us in getting the new products. Starting from the Himalayan region till Kerala and Tamilnadu it is being celebrated in its own ways.

This festival is being celebrated for 3-4 days and in earlier days it was celebrated for complete one month in Assam and called “Magh Bihu/Bhogali Bihu”. Different states have different names as well as there own customs.

Being a festival of new beginning, this festival has special significance for newlywed couples as well as newly born babies as it is the first festival for them to be celebrated together after coming to a new home. In many places, married women celebrate this festival by distributing sindoor or kumkum to each other and newlywed women are assumed to gift bananas to their married friends and relatives so as to receive goodwill from them

Things to do

In Makar Sankranti, one of the most famous traditions is to fly kites in the sky as it is said that due to the solar events the air movement changes and this custom is most famous in Gujarat. On this day a special sweet made from til gul is famous and other sweets made from newly harvested crops are made all over India.

Being a newly wedded girl, this year I am going to have a blast on this day by trying my hands on making of special sweets by my own hands for my husband and in-laws. So dear ladies make your minds and start preparing to make you husbands happy by making sweets for them like me

Travel guides for Makar Sankranti:

As a tourist when you are traveling in Makar Sankranti then major differences lie in North India and South India, rather the center of the festival celebrations lies the same but custom changes are prevalent everywhere.

Traditions in North India

In North India, Makar Sankranti is commonly known as Makara Sankranti and in Punjab its name is LOHRI. Makar Sankranti is celebrated as a harvest festival that is celebrated with much pleasure and basically with Dance and folks especially in LOHRI. LOHRI is the main festival of Punjabi’s and they celebrate it with bhangra and gidda. In Makar Sankranti, people all around the place gather in one place and have had many cultural activities like dance and songs and even dramas are being organized in many places to entertain the guests. In North India, “Til-Gul laddoo” and “Special khichdi” are the main foods being eaten. Til-Gul sweet is made from sesame seeds and gur together giving them around or desired shape and at night delicious khichdi is made in dinner with the newly harvested rice and dal along with spicy veggies inside them. Khichdi made is very tasty and mouth watery as they are made of pure ghee.

Tradition in South India

In south India, Makara Sankranti is basically famous in the name of Pongal. Pongal is another name of this festival and it lasts for 3-4 days. The first day the festival is done for the people which is known as “BHOGI PANDIGA”. On the first people throw all rubbish items from their house. The second day is treated as “THAI PONGAL”. On this day many items are prepared and fed to the family members. “Pongal” which is name of a sweet dish made with lentils is also made and fed to everyone but the one who eats first is the God Sun who stands as a “Pratyaksha Brahman”. The third day is treated as an auspicious day for animals as they are only one who helps in cultivating the food items. This day is also called as “Mattu Pongal” only dedicated to animals. The last day of Pongal is known as “KANNUM PONGAL” and this is the day when the festivities ends and life goes back to normal. People greet each other and plan visits to each other’s houses.