Makar Sankranti Festival’s Tale And How It ended

Makar Sankranti is one of the most important days for the Hindus, and marks in almost every part of India in various cultural ways, with tremendous zeal, happiness and enthusiasm.

It is the largest celebration of the Hindus, devoted to Lord Sun, also applies to a single solar day in the Hindu calendar.

On this auspicious day, the moon joins the zodiac sign of Capricorn and Makar, which marks the end of the winter month and the beginning of longer days. In the start of Magh’s month.

To honour the difference that creates the movement around the world, every 80 years, the day of Sankranti postponed one day. Makar Sankranti generally falls on the 14th of January.

From the day of Makar Sankranti, the sun starts its path to the north or Uttarayan. This festival is also known as Uttarayan.

Makara Sankranti celebrates with cultural festivals such as colourful lights, rural children going from house to house, singing and calling for food in some places (or pocket money), melas (fairs), dances, kite flying, bonfires and feasts.

Many go to holy rivers or lakes and bathe with thanksgiving to the light.

Every twelve years, the Hindus celebrate Makar Sankranti on one of the largest mass pilgrimages in the world.

With an approximate 40 to 100 million citizens attending the event.

At this case, they offer prayer to the sun and bathe at the Prayaga confluence of the Ganga River and the Yamuna River at Kumbha Mela, a practice attributed to Adi Shankaracharya.

Importance of Makar Sankranti

This festival dedicates to the religious sun god Surya of the Hindus

This importance of Surya can trace back to the Vedic scriptures, in particular, the Gayatri Mantra, the holy hymn of Hinduism contained in its scripture called the Rigveda.

The holiday also marks the beginning of six months for Hindus known as Uttarayana.

Makara Sankranti considers essential for spiritual practice and so, people take a holy dip in the rivers, particularly Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri.

It believes that bathing results in the merit or absolution of past sins. We also pray to the sun and thank for their achievements and prosperity.

Shared cultural practices found among Hindus from different parts of India are making sticky, bound sweets, particularly from sesame (til) and sugar base, such as jaggery (gud, gur).

This kind of happiness is a sign of being together in peace and joy, given the individuality and discrepancies between people.

For most parts of India, this time is part of the early stages of the Rabi crop and farming process, where yields have planted, and hard work in the field finish.

Time thus, implies a time of socialization and families enjoying each other’s company, caring for the livestock and relaxing around the bonfires.

In Maharashtra, the festival celebrates by flying kites.

Makara Sankranti is a famous pan-Indian solar festival, identified by different names but celebrated on the same day, sometimes for dates around Makar Sankranti.

It knows as Pedda Panduga in Andhra Pradesh, Makara Sankranti in Karnataka and Maharashtra, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Magh Bihu in Assam.

Magha Mela in parts of central and northern India, Makar Sankranti in the west, and by other terms. In some parts of India, it claims that a devil kills that day.

Regional Wise Celebration

Many fairs conduct in Makar Sankranti, the most popular being Kumbha Mela, held every 12 years in one of four holy places, Haridwar, Prayag (Allahabad), Ujjain and Nashik.

The Magha Mela (or the mini-Kumbh Mela held in Prayag) and the Gangasagar Mela (held at the base of the Ganges River, where it runs into the Bay of Bengal). 

In Odisha, Makar Mela. Tusu Mela, also known as Tusu Porab, observes in many areas of Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Poush Mela is an annual fair and festival organized in Santiniketan, in the Birbhum district of West Bengal.