Makar Sankranti

A sankranti is the moment the sun passes from one zodiac sign to the next; there are twelve in a year. Makar Sankranti, the sun's entry into Capricorn as reckoned in the sidereal (nirayana) zodiac used by Hindu astronomy, is the most important. Because it is a solar event, it falls on almost the same Gregorian date every year, currently 14 or 15 January, depending on the exact moment of transit.

The festival is observed during the punya kaal, the auspicious period after the transit. When the transit happens after sunset, panchangs move the observance to the following day. Over centuries the date slowly drifts later because of the precession of the equinoxes; Lohri, linked to it, is recorded to have fallen on 11 or 12 January in earlier generations.

Tradition calls this the start of Uttarayana, the sun's northward journey. Astronomically, the sun begins moving north at the winter solstice around 21 December; the Hindu festival keeps its link to the sidereal sign of Makara, so today the two are about three weeks apart.

Makar Sankranti is a festival of the sun rather than of a single myth. The Vedic hymns honour Surya and Savitr, the sun as giver of life and inspiration, and the Gayatri mantra addressed to Savitr is still chanted at sunrise on this day.

The Mahabharata gives Uttarayana special sanctity. Bhishma, mortally wounded at Kurukshetra and blessed with the power to choose his time of death, lay on a bed of arrows waiting for the sun to turn north before leaving his body. The Bhagavad Gita (8.24) also speaks of the bright northern path as the way of those who do not return.

Popular traditions add more. It is said that Surya visits his son Shani, lord of Makara, on this day, a reminder to set aside old differences. In Bengal, the day is linked to the descent of the Ganga to the sea at Sagar Island, where King Bhagiratha's ancestors were liberated. And everywhere the festival marks the reaping of the winter harvest, the rabi crop in the north and the new paddy in the south and east.

Customs differ by region; a common pattern is:

The Gayatri mantra of the Rigveda (3.62.10), addressed to Savitr, the sun as the divine impeller, is the classic sunrise prayer. In daily recitation it is preceded by 'Om bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ'.

The same turning of the sun is celebrated under many names.

Sesame and jaggery define the season: til laddoos, gajak, rewri, chikki and tilgul warm the body in midwinter and are believed to sweeten speech and relationships. New-harvest rice appears as khichdi, pongal and pitha; sugarcane is chewed and offered. Kite flying, bonfires, cattle races and rangoli or kolam fill the days. Many families now use cotton thread rather than glass-coated manja for kites, since the coated strings injure birds and people.

Makar Sankranti is gratitude made visible: to the sun that sustains life, to the land and cattle that bring in the harvest, and to the family and neighbours with whom it is shared. As one of the few Hindu festivals fixed to the solar year, it unites a vast country under many names, from Pongal to Bihu. Its message of sweet speech and generous giving, at the coldest time of the year, is as relevant in a city flat as in a farming village.