Makar Sankranti

Makar Sankranti marks the sun's transition into Capricorn (Makar Rashi), symbolizing renewal, prosperity, and harvest. Unlike most Hindu festivals, which follow the lunar calendar, Sankranti is a solar event and so falls on almost the same date, 14 or 15 January, every year. It also marks the end of the winter solstice period and the start of longer, warmer days, which is why it is celebrated as a harvest festival across nearly every region of India under a different regional name.

People consume sesame-jaggery sweets, fly kites from rooftops and open fields, and take a holy dip in rivers such as the Ganga, considering it a way to wash away past sins as the sun begins its northward journey. Community kite-flying competitions, bonfires the previous evening, and charitable giving of food, clothes, and sesame-jaggery to the needy are common across most regions.

The festival has Vedic roots linked to solar worship and to tracking the sun's movement between the northern and southern hemispheres (Uttarayana and Dakshinayana). In the Mahabharata, Bhishma Pitamah, though mortally wounded, chose to wait on a bed of arrows until Makar Sankranti before leaving his body, since dying during Uttarayana was believed to lead to liberation. This story is one reason the day is considered especially auspicious for spiritual practice and charity.

Mythology states that Surya, the Sun God, visits the house of his son Shani Dev, the lord of Capricorn, on this day - despite the two having a difficult relationship in other legends. Their reunion on Makar Sankranti symbolizes reconciliation, the setting aside of old grievances, and the victory of light and warmth over the darkness of winter.

• •Eating sesame-jaggery
• •Flying kites
• •River bathing
• •Charity

• •Offering water to the Sun
• •Feeding cows
• •Donating Khichdi

• •Lohri in Punjab
• •Pongal in Tamil Nadu
• •Bihu in Assam
• •Uttarayan in Gujarat

Dos and Don'ts