Makar Sankranti- The Way We Celebrate
Posted : January 14, 2009 at 9:30 pm [IST]
In my village in Bihar, Makar Sankranti is called as Khichadi (Bhojpuri). That’s what my aunty confirmed today when I called her in Vadodara where she is presently with my cousin brother. I remember a Makar Sankranti of early sixties, when I happened to join a group with one of my uncles and some other elderly person and went to Buxar to take bath on the auspicious day in River Ganga at Buxar. It was a real cold early morning bath. While returning we stopped at our relative in Tiyra. As per the custom, we eat khichadi in night.
For all these years since Yamuna came, I take bath early in the morning and touch a bowl full of some rice, lintel and some sesame seeds. Earlier we used to give the content of the bowl to the priest of some temple. But then Yamuna started giving that to the maid servant or any needy woman she knows. She believes her more deserving, perhaps useful than the priest. During lunch, we take rice flakes (Chiura) with sweet curd. And khichadi, a preparation of rice and lintel with lot of vegetables of all sorts and spices accompanied with curd and pickles becomes the main dish at dinner.
Interestingly, Makar Sankranti always falls on the same date of January i.e. 14th every year. The Sun enters the Makara raasi (the zodiac sign of Capricorn - the goat), on this Sankranti day, signifying the onset of Uttarayana Punyakalam. It’s the beginning of auspicious days for doing good things or for starting something new. Huge crowd collects to take bath in Ganga in Varanasi, at Sangam (confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Sarswati that has disappeared now) in Allahabad, or at the confluence of Hooghly River and Bay of Bengal at Ganga Sagar. Once we had been to Ganga Sagar too with the family of BP Singh and Kamkhaya Singh. I lost my camera in a pick pocket while waiting for boat to come back. It was a real bad experience. Fortunately, we had reached when the crowd had left. India celebrates the day in different ways in different corners, as Bihu in Assam, Pongal in Tamilnadu or Makara Vilakku Day in Kerala. But for me it is the day of ‘khichadi’ and ‘chura dahi’ that I relish. Let me confess as Yamuna was not well, I helped her to get all the preparations done.
And thus I keep enjoying what comes.
- Indra
Category: Religious/Social issues |
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