The first upcoming Festival of the Year 2018 is about to knock our doors. It is about to arrive and will make your lives even more cheerful because it is believed to bring Optimism, liveliness, and lot of hopes. Let us make you summarize about what we will be talking of further. Here we are talking about the Harvest festival. Makar Sankranti or Sankranti is a harvest festival celebrated in India every year with lot of delectation and ecstasy. Sankranti is derived from the word ‘Sankramana‘ that means a ‘change’. It is also called ‘Makar Sankranti‘ as the Sun enters Makara Rashi or the zodiac sign ‘Capricorn’ on that day. It usually arrives on 14th of January every year. The Sun starts its northward journey from the Tropic of Capricorn towards the Tropic of Cancer. This journey is called Uttaraayan by which it is meant, a northward march. We, in India, are at the north of the equator. We rejoice on this Day, because the breezy cold winter is believed to come to an end and flourishing sunny days are about to get started. So to know it better, this blog will be bestowing the 10 things about Makar Sankranti that you probably didn’t knew!

1. Craze for Kite Flying on Sankranti

Makar Sankranti is also celebrated by the young generation of our country as a kite flying festival. Many of you may be just flying kites on this day out of fun, But besides that there is a great significance behind it. It is believed that winter brings in lots of infections and sickness which can be better cured through basking. So basically, the kite flying is done to make the basking time more interesting and fun.

2. Festival of Donation

Above all the delivered facts about this festival is the fact that it is called as the festival of donation .On the auspicious occasion of this festival, bathing in Haridwar, Kashi and other spiritual and pilgrim sites are of great significance. This day, other than God Sun, Lord Vishnu is also worshiped with lot of devotion.

3. Taste of Sankranti

The festival is said to have a different taste of its own. There are many variety of dishes that are been necessarily made by the people to celebrate Makar Sankranti. Some of the famous dishes that are made during this festival are Til ke Laddu, Paatishaapte, Kurmure Chikki, Sakkarai Pongal,Puli Pitha, Til Chikki, Rewdi, Til Pitha, Gulachi Pori or Jaggery Chapati,Makara Chaula, Crushed peanut Laddu, Pinni, Khichdi etc. Maximum of the sweets on this auspicious day are made of sesame seeds and jaggery. The scientific reason behind using Til is that the sesame seeds consists of oil that generated heat in the body during winters. Also consuming jaggery during winters is considered as good as it generates enough heat to the body needed during winters.

4. Sankranti on the Solar Calendar

Solar Calender is what, whose dates are the correct representation of Earth’s position during its revolution around the Sun. But why is Solar Calendar been talked about here? This is just for your better understanding of the upcoming line about an Indian festival Makar Sankranti that we have been talking all through in this blog. Makar Sankranti is the only Indian festival that follows Solar Calendar. This is why the festival falls exactly on the same date. As per the records maintained from the beginning, it is celebrated on 14^th January every year.

5. Makar Sankranti as the Harvest Festival

The festival of Makar Sankranti is also known by the name of The Harvest Festival. It is known so by this name because this festival is said to mark the onset of harvesting season. This day was considered an auspicious day even at the time of the great epic Mahabharata. Bhishma Pitamaha even after getting debilitated in the war of Mahabharata, staggered till Uttaraayan so that after his demise, he can get heavenly hearth on this day. The day is also significant as the person demising on the day of Makar Sankranti is believed to receive Moksha or Salvation.

6. Season of Sankranti

Some of you might have heard about Magh. If not, the let us solve this query of some of you. Magh is the name of the eleventh month as per the Hindu calendar and the month which corresponds to January or February in the Gregorian calendar. As per the Solar Hindu Calendar, Makar Sankranti is celebrated on 1^st day the Magh.

7. Sankranti as Winter Solstice

Now talking about Winter Solstice, which means the start of the period when the starting day is with the shortest fall of the daylight and the longest night of the year. This starting day of winter solstice is marked with the occurrence of the festival, Makar Sankranti.

8. Belief of Dakshinaayan and Uttaraayan

One of the interesting facts about Makar Sankranti is also a belief that people have which says, “The sun ends Dakshinaayan at the tropic of cancer from this day and starts Uttaraayan towards the tropic of cancer”. And yes, if anyone of you are getting confused about what is Dakshinaayan and what is Uttaraayan. Then let us make you know about it. Dakshinaayan refers to the Southward journey of sun whereas Uttaraayan refers to the Northward journey of sun.

9. Irony on Makar Sankranti

As you already knew that Makar Sankranti marks a day after the winter solstice. But you might not know that every 70 years ahead, the date of winter solstice gets one day earlier. This happens due to the change in orientation of the rotational axis of the Earth, If we started celebrating Makar Sankranti going through this calculation, then it would have been back 300 BCE. This really would sound very much silly and dubious that we had to go such a significant number of years back to celebrate this festival.

10. Different calls for the festival

The festival, it been talked about so far is known by different names all across the country. It is known as Makara Sankranti in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state. It is known as Sakraat or khichdi ib Bihar and Jharkhand state. Similarly, it has many other names in other regions too like Sakraat in Haryana and Delhi, Uttaraayan in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Magha Saaji in Himanchal Pradesh, Suggi in Karnataka, Ghughuti or Kale Kauva in Uttarakhand, Maghi in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Paush Parbon in West Bengal and many more.

We hope this blog presented by wiwigo was very helpful to know the facts about Makar Sankranti, and hence making you know Makar Sankranti a lot above then just flying kites. If you loved reading it then please like it and share it. Happy Makar Sankranti.

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