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 Instagram and Facebook 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

Book: The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

The Light We Carry, my latest read is written by Michelle Obama. This author needs no introduction. She is well known as the Former First Lady of the United States of America. She has authored three books so far - American Grown, Becoming and The Light We Carry. I loved her memoir Becoming and this my second of her works. In Becoming, she took us through her life, right from her childhood to the time she spent as the First Lady of US. In The Light We Carry, Michelle Obama focused on a more specific topic. She provided us a glimpse of her habits, practices, attitudes and beliefs she follows to stay balanced and confident, even during times of high anxiety and stress, both in her professional and personal space. She calls them as toolbox which she developed over time based on her life experiences and calls it as her own ongoing process of “Becoming”. Through this book, Michelle Obama discusses about finding personal power, communal power and the power to override feelings of doubt and he

Recipe: Mor kuzhambu

Today, I am sharing a recipe of Mor kuzhambu, a curry made out of buttermilk - Mor (buttermilk) + kuzhambu (curry), which is an authentic recipe from Tamil Nadu. There are many variations of curry prepared using curd/ buttermilk across India like majjiga pulusu (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana), pulissery (Kerala), majjige huli (Karnataka), kadhi (Punjab) etc. I am a big fan of Saravana Bhavan mor kuzhambu, made with ground spices and sour buttermilk. The Saravana Bhavan at our office cafeteria used to serve delicious mor kuzhambu every Thursday as part of its South Indian Thali menu. Whenever I could, I used to skip bringing lunch from home, to savor Saravana Bhavan's mor kuzhambu with hot steamed rice. Ground spices and sour curd/ buttermilk are the heart of this curry. I tried my hands at different proportions of spices and finally arrived at the best version, which I am posting today. Do give it a try and share your feedback in comments section. You can add vegetables like bottle

Instant Pot

* This post doesn't include any paid promotion "Instant Pot" - It has become a household name and per survey, 1 in 3 houses in North America have an Instant Pot in their kitchens. Robert Wang along with his colleagues from Nortel, Canada designed Instant Pot in 2009. Since it was introduced in the market, varied models have been released and it combines multiple functions of pressure cooker, slow cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, food warmer, saute pan into one appliance, making it versatile. Few models include options for baking, air frying, sous vide. Though I came across this appliance when I was in the US, I didn't really find the necessity to buy one. I use pressure cookers and rice cooker for my cooking needs. Recently, I wanted to upgrade to a 5litres pressure cooker and then thought why not give Instant Pot a try, to check if it is worth all the hype. During last week's black friday sale, I found Instant Pot Duo Gourmet (6 quart) at Costco for a special pric

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

Manu's Medley

Search This Blog