Makar Sankranti snippets

Indian festivals and religious ceremonies are based on solar and lunar cycles. The position of the sun and the moon plays a very important role in determining several festivals and rituals. Sun is the main source of light and is considered as the god in the Indian mythology. A solar month is the period taken by the sun to travel through a ‘rashi’ or Zodiac sign. The entry of the sun in a Zodiac sign is termed as Sankrant. Though there are twelve sankrants in a year, Makar Sankranti and Shravan Sankranti are the most auspicious as far as religious rituals are concerned. The entire year is divided into Uttarayana which determines the northern declination of the sun and Dakshinayan which determines the southern declination of the sun. When the sun enters the constellation of Capricorn or makar, the festival of Makar Sankranti is celebrated. The period of Uttarayana is believed to be the most auspicious and every religiousminded Hindu strongly desire to die during the Uttarayana. It is believed that Uttarayana begins on Makar Sankranti and every Hindu family welcomes it by preparing delicious sweet dishes. The dates of other Hindu festivals differ but Makar Sankranti is observed annually on January 14 when it is ‘shishir ritu’ or winter season. On this auspicious day a special sweet is prepared of til (sesame). Dried sesame seeds are mixed with jaggery and laddus of miniature size are prepared and exchanged with the message ‘eat the sweet and speak sweetly throughout the year, without hurting the emotions of others.’ “The climatic condition during this period of the year is cold and the human body needs extra energy and heat. As the sweet made from sesame and jaggery helps to obtain extra heat and energy, this tradition came into practice,” informs Sanjeevani Narulkar from Hali-Chandel, Pernem. However, this tradition seems to be gradually disappearing as most of the people hardly have any time to prepare ‘tilache laddu.’ Today, people prefer to exchange readymade sweets prepared with powdered sugar.