Sankranthi/ Pongal

To all those who celebrate, wish you all a very happy Bhogi and Sankranthi. May the Sun God bless you with abundant prosperity.

Makara Sankranthi is a harvest festival celebrated by Hindus across India. It is celebrated on the day on which Sun transitions into Makara (Capricorn) on its celestial path. This day marks the beginning of the spring season. Predominantly, Makara Sankranthi falls on 14th January every year and occasionally on 15th January.

This festival is celebrated with different names and rituals in different parts of the country. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana it is known as Sankranthi or Makara Sankranthi; Tamil Nadu as Pongal; Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Goa and West Bengal as Makara Sankranthi; Maghi in Punjab; Bihu in Assam etc. As it is a harvest festival, farmers worship the Sun God, as a way of saying "Thanks" for blessing them with good harvest and prosperity. Bonfires, rangoli, kite flying, bull taming, cock fighting are major attractions of this festival.

Generally Sankranthi is celebrated as a 4 days festival.

Day 1: Bhogi/ Lohri - People celebrate this day with a bonfire in the morning. They discard old and unused things into the bonfire, thus welcoming a new beginning. Children dance around the bonfire playing drums. In Punjab, bonfire is lit after sunset and food items like sesame, puffed rice, jaggery, peanuts etc. are thrown into the fire, symbolizing end of the old year and start of the new year.

Day 2: Makara Sankranthi/ Pongal/ Maghi - Usually colourful rangolis are drawn in front of the house. Chakkera/sakkara (sweet) pongal is cooked with newly harvested rice, jaggery and milk and is offered to Sun God. Sweets are distributed to near and dear. In Karnataka and Maharashtra, sweets made of till (sesame) are shared with friends and family.

Day 3: Kanuma Panduga/ Mattu Pongal - On this day, farmers paint their cattle and decorate them with flowers. Then they offer food to cattle and worship them, for assisting them throughout the year. Bull taming, a popular sport is the highlight of celebrations on this day.

Day 4: Mukkanuma/ Kaanum Pongal - This marks the last day of festivities. Farmers offer prayers to earth, rain and fire for helping them in harvest. People enjoy kite flying and go on picnic with friends and family, to unwind themselves.

This leaves me nostalgic with all the festivities at India, especially when I was a kid. It is a beautiful experience to witness Sankranthi celebrations in villages.

During my childhood days, we used to celebrate Sankranthi with our grand parents, at our native place. Since schools were closed for holidays, all our cousins, uncles and aunts used to gather at our native. Our girls gang used to wake up before 4am and draw beautiful rangolis in front of the house and decorate them with colours, gobbemma (small cow dung balls) and flowers. After break fast, we take a stroll in the streets to take check up on others' rangolis, to see if they were better than ours.

Our grand mother and aunts used to prepare yummy sweets and snacks (ariselu, laddu, murkulu etc.). The aroma of the sweets will be so enticing and we sneak into the kitchen to grab some while the preparation is still on 😁 We start our preparation for bhogi by collecting logs, old/unused furniture and other solid fuels well in advance, to light up the biggest bonfire possible, competing with neighbours. On the day of Sankranthi, we dress up in our traditional best and visit relatives and enjoy a full course meal. Since the start of Dhanurmasam (mid December), until Sankranthi, haridasulu used to come and sing epic stories and hymns in front of all the houses; gangireddhulu (colourfully decorated cows) visit every house; and we used to offer them sweets, food, clothes and money.

From the stories what I heard from my parents, the memories I made during my childhood and how we celebrate today, the grandeur of the festival has reduced drastically. While I try to preserve the traditions to the best possible, by celebrating all the festivals, I will share my cherished memories with my kid, to give him a sense of it.

What are your childhood memories of this festival? Do comment.

Follow me on my Youtube channel to get notified about my latest articles!!

Comments

Review: Anex Monkey Smart Watch

Hello Readers, Welcome back. While browsing through a weekly flyer by Canadian Tire, my eyes got hold of a smart watch, primarily for its name - Monkey Smart Watch. It's original price was $89.99. On account of Father's Day, the price was slashed 70% and offered for just $24.99 (from June 9th to June 16th). As it was listed on Canadian Tire website, I thought the product should be genuine and googled to know more about the product. But there weren't sufficient reviews online. So I decided to try it myself and booked it online. This smart watch was launched in the last quarter of 2021 as Anex Monkey Smart Watch. Last year, it had been sold for just $19.99 as part of Black Friday deal. Even after 5 days of waiting, Canadian Tire didn't process my order. On the other hand, the stock was vanishing real quick and only 80 watches were available in our near by store. When checked with their customer service executive, I was told to cancel my online order or wait until they p...

Rutabaga: An Underrated Superfood & A Delicious Indian Recipe To Try!

Trying something new can feel uncertain, whether it is a new routine or new job or new city or even a new vegetable, as we often find comfort in the familiar. I had reservations about this particular vegetable until I cooked and tasted it. Let me introduce you Rutabaga, a lesser known vegetable (at least for a person from tropical region like me). It is nutrient-rich, flavourful and incredibly easy to prepare. When I first saw Rutabaga in the grocery stores here, I thought it would be from the yam family and ignored it, primarily because of its starch content. In addition, Rutabaga's sheer size always made me think twice to try it. In India, grocery stores sell small portions of vegetables like yam, cabbage or pumpkin, allowing customers purchase only what they need, which is...

Book: The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler

My knowledge on Buddha and Buddhism is limited to my school text books and some documentaries. I always wanted to know more about Buddha, his preachings and the philosophy of Buddhism. Few months back, I reached out to a book recommendation group on FB. Just within minutes, I received multiple suggestions on books on Buddhism, out of which I chose "The Art of Happiness" (the one with the highest number of recommendations). I decided to read it as the first book of 2024. If you had been following me regularly, you would have known I wasn't successful at meeting my yearly reading goals. So unlike previous years, I wanted to adopt a different approach and goal towards reading, that could enable me to read more. I have explained about it at the end of this article. For now, let me get into the topic "The Art of Happiness" is authored by the 14th Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. His Holiness Dalai Lama needs no introduction. HH Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of th...

Why I Write - Q&A with Manu

I keep getting direct and indirect questions on Why I Write? There won't be a better occasion than this to address this Q and other frequently asked Qs. It's been exactly 2 years since I started this website - Manu's Medley and apparently this is my 100th blog post. So Why I Write? I can give a fancier reply stating "I chose to follow my passion". But I won't, as it isn't true. After being in the IT industry for more than a decade, working tirelessly all through the weeks, months and years, I moved to Canada carrying my little one, when the whole world was witnessing one of the deadliest diseases COVID. It was at the same time, I had to take a career break due to few compelling personal reasons and decided to be a full time mom. It's a new place and a new role, with almost zero support, unlike the support system at India. To top it, the lockdowns and restrictions were never ending. The three of us spent months together within our apartment and my ...

Book: The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

The Henna Artist is first of the Jaipur Trilogy - The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris, written by Alka Joshi. Alka was born in India and moved to US along with her family when she was nine. She did her BA from Stanford University and had written advertising commercials and marketing copy. She enrolled herself in the MFA program in creative writing at California College of Arts at the age of 51. Later she went onto write her first fictional novel - The Henna Artist, which immediately became New York Times bestseller. For this debut novel, Alka drew inspiration from her mother's life. Her mother had to discontinue her studies to get married at the age of 18. Both her parents got into wedlock, against their personal choice. Both had dreams and goals to achieve. Sooner they had children and her mother couldn't have the life that she wished. Alka is known to have mentioned, “I can’t change her life, but I can change it in fiction. I can create ...

Manu's Medley

Search This Blog