Vedo Rakshati Rakshitaha

Makara Sankranti

Makara Sankranti is a Hindu festival celebrated in almost all parts of India and Nepal in a myriad of cultural forms. It is a harvest festival. It is the Hindi/Indo-Aryan languages name for Makara Sankranthi (still used in southern areas as the official name).

Makara Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac sign of Makara rashi (Capricorn) on its celestial path. The day is also believed to mark the arrival of spring in India and is a traditional. Makara Sankranti is a solar event making one of the few Indian festivals which fall on the same date in the Gregorian calendar every year: 14 January, with some exceptions when the festival is celebrated on 13 or 15 January.

Sankranti activities, like taking bath, offering Naivedhya (food offered to deity) to Lord Surya, offering charity or Dakshina, performing Shraddha rituals and breaking fast or Parana, should be done during Punya Kaal.

The time between Makara Sankranti and 40 Ghatis (roughly 16 hours for Indian locations if we consider 1 Ghati duration as 24 minutes) from the time of Makara Sankranti is considered good for auspicious work. This duration of forty Ghatis is known as Punya Kaal.

If Makara Sankranti happens after Sunset then all Punya Kaal activities are postponed till next day Sunrise. Hence all Punya Kaal activities should be done in day time.

Makara Sankranti has an astrological significance, as the sun enters the Capricorn (Sanskrit: Makara) zodiac constellation on that day. This date remains almost constant with respect to the Gregorian calendar. However, precession of the Earth's axis (called ayanamsa) causes Makara Sankranti to move over the ages. A thousand years ago, Makara Sankranti was on 31 December and is now on 14 January. According to calculations, from 2050 Makara Sankranti will fall on January 15.

Makara Sankranti is a major harvest festival celebrated in various parts of India. Many Indians also conflate this festival with the Winter Solstice, and believe that the sun ends its southward journey (Sanskrit: Dakshinayana) at the Tropic of Capricorn, and starts moving northward (Sanskrit: Uttarayaana) towards the Tropic of Cancer, in the month of Pausha on this day in mid-January. There is no observance of Winter Solstice in the Hindu religion.

Makara Sankranti commemorates the beginning of the harvest season and cessation of the northeast monsoon in South India. The movement of the Sun from one zodiac sign into another is called Sankranti and as the Sun moves into the Capricorn zodiac known as Makara in Sanskrit, this occasion is named as Makara Sankranti in the Indian context. It is one of the few Hindu Indian festivals which are celebrated on a fixed date i.e. 14 January every year (or may be sometimes on 15 January (leap year)).

In India it is known by different regional names.

Makara Sankranti: Chhattisgarh, Goa, Odisha, Haryana, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal

Pongal: Tamil Nadu

Uttarayan: Gujarat

Maghi: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab

Lohri: Punjab (Lohri is celebrated a day before Makara Sankranti)

Bhogali Bihu: Assam

Shishur Saenkraat: Kashmir Valley

Khichdi: Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar

Makara Sankramana: Karnataka

In other countries too the day is celebrated but under different names and in different ways.

Nepal: Maghe Sankranti; Tharu people: Maghi, Other people: Maghe Sankranti or Maghe Sakrati; Laos: Pi Ma Lao; Myanmar: Thingyan; Cambodia: Moha Sangkran; Sri Lanka: Pongal, Uzhavar Thirunal.