Makar Sankranti Celebrations

The food prepared during Makar Sankranti enables to keep the body warm and produce energy. Since the puja is undertaken during the winter times therefore the food is really helpful. The state of Andhra Pradesh in Southern India celebrates the festival with much pomp and vigor for three consecutive days.

In West Bengal, Makar Sankranti is popularly known as the ‘Gangasagar Mela’. People flock at the banks of the river Ganges and take dip to attain ‘punya’. In Gujarat the festival is celebrated by flying kites in the sky. In Maharashtra, people exchange Tilachir Ladoo, which actually tastes very sweet. The women wear a kind of black sari, which is known as the Chandrakala.

The Punjabis commemorate the occasion by lighting a bonfire and throwing rice, sweets and sugarcane. The next day they celebrate Maghi in which they perform the Bhangra dance. The Assamese celebrate Bhogali Bihu during this time. In Northern part of India, the Kumbh Mela (the largest fair in the world) is held at the confluence of Yamuna, Ganges and Saraswati Rivers.

In Kerala, the people celebrate Pongal in which a cow or bathe, then a tilak is put on it and beads and ornaments are put round the horns and the neck. Thus, the Makar Sankranti is celebrated with much dedication and faith all over India.

How to Celebrate :

• Get up early in the morning, before sunrise, have bath and be ready with water & flowers for the sunrise. Worship the rising Sun, by offering water, flowers with both the hands & then pray with folded hands by chanting the Gayatri Mantra and pray for knowledge, wisdom and enlightenment to rise in the similar way to greater & greater heights. Pray for blessings to live a dynamic, inspired & righteous life.

• Do tarpan for your ancestors. Offer water to the ancestors while praying for their blessings. Resolve to redeem the pledges & pride of your forefathers. Live life in such a way that wherever your forefathers may be their head is held high by the life & deeds of their children.
• Have a special session of Meditation, wherein you bring about the awareness of the self-effulgent subjective divinity. Affirm the greatest importance of your spiritual goal very clearly, and pray to God to bless you with the capacity to constantly revel in your true self. May the graph of your rise like the Uttarayana Sun. May there be greater 'Love & Light' in your life & the world.
• Prepare laddus or other sweets of Til & Gur and offer them to your friends & relatives. See to it that your ‘Well-being Prayer for all’ gets manifested in action & deeds.
• Have the lunch of Khichiri. This stands for inculcating simplicity in your life & habits.
• Give some Daan on this day to someone who truly deserves.
• Visit your son at his place and give presents to the son and the daughter-in-law. If it is not possible to visit, then organize to send presents to them to express your love & affection to them. Work to properly cultivate the generation, which has to carry forward all the best you cherish & value.