Thursday 15 January 2015

Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Lohri, Bihu, Bhogi and others....

The first festival of the year 2015 is here and different people celebrate it differently and call it different names. Essentially its the harvest festival. On 13th the North Indians celebrated Lohri, on 14th Andra celebrated Bhogi and Gujarat celebrated Uttarayan, East celebrated Bihu and on 15 Makar Sankranti and Pongal. There may be others I am unaware of. 

In all these festivals few ingredients are common like the laya, til, gud, sugar cane, coconuts, peanuts, and boar etc... Few variations occur region to region e.g. In Gujarat people feast on Undhiyon [winter special vegetables], in north they feast on Makkai roti and sarson ka saag, in south it is the Pongal. Festivals are all about food, decorations and dressing up well isn;t it? Of course there are other things like flying the kite, haldi kumkum and the boarnahan. 

Like many Indians I am not exactly aware of the whyz of every ritual, but I follow some because it brings in sheer happiness. While there are many sankranti through the year I have no idea why just this one is celebrated on a large scale? Any of your beautiful peoples want to share any additional information for the knowledge of people reading this article are welcome to do so.

So whatever it is you are celebrating just remember to be Happy!! That's the core message ENJOY!!

Festival special rangoli and decoration

More on Boarnahan a little later. In the meanwhile do drop a line, I'd love to hear from you.

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