The story behind the day
Makar Saṅkrānti is the Hindu festival of the day the Sun enters Makara, the sign of Capricorn, a solar event that falls in mid-January. Because the Sun rather than the Moon sets it, the date barely moves from year to year, staying close to 14 January. By tradition the day opens uttarāyaṇa, the Sun's northward course and a blessed season, and in the Tamil south it is the harvest festival of Pongal.[1–5]
Origins
A saṅkrānti is the Sun's passage from one sign of the zodiac to the next, and the Sun leaving Dhanus and entering Makara is Makara Saṅkrānti. Reference works call it a sacred date almost everywhere in India. Astronomers put the Sun's northward turn at the winter solstice on 21 December. The traditional almanacs, which follow older data and a fixed star-based zodiac, keep the day in mid-January, about three weeks later because of the precession of the equinoxes, and the date has crept slowly later over the centuries. A scholar writing in 1958 placed it on 13 or 14 January.[1–2, 6–7]
What it marks
By tradition the day begins uttarāyaṇa, the half of the year when the Sun travels north, which Hindu reference works call a blessed time. In the Tamil south it is also the main harvest festival, a day of thanksgiving for the crop, the animals and the Sun.[3–4]
How it came to be
The idea that the Sun's northward half-year is favoured is old. The Chāndogya Upaniṣad describes a path of departed souls that passes through the six months when the Sun goes north. The Bhagavad Gītā (8.24) lists the same six months among the times at which those who know Brahman depart and reach it, and sets against them the six months when the Sun goes south.[8]
How it is kept: Pongal
In Tamil Nadu the south Indian counterpart of Makara Saṅkrānti is Poṅkal, or Pongal. Accounts count it as two or three days. In the three-day form the first day, Bhogi Pongal, is for visiting and exchanging gifts and sweets, the second is the Sun's day, and the third honours the cows. On the Sun's day married women cook rice in milk; as the pot comes to the boil everyone shouts "Pongal," meaning "it has boiled," and the name comes from that word for boiling. The first portion goes to the Sun and to Gaṇeśa. Pongal joins worship of the Sun with that of the ancestors and the cattle.[5, 9–11]
How it is kept: sesame
Sesame is the sign of the day across much of India. Sesame and jaggery sweets are the characteristic food, and in Maharashtra people hand them to one another with a greeting that asks the receiver to speak sweet words. The medieval digests record sesame gifts and sesame offerings as part of the day's duties.[12]
Sources
Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Encyclopedia.com; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Encyclopedia.com; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- Verifiedlink.springer.com; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1; Encyclopedia.com; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedP. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1; Encyclopedia.com; Encyclopedia.com.
- Verifiedvedabase.io; Wisdom Library; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; link.springer.com; Encyclopedia.com; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Encyclopedia.com; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Encyclopedia.com; link.springer.com; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedEncyclopedia.com; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.