Indian Festival - Makar Sankranti

India is known for its diversified culture, festivals, religions, multi languages and beautiful places. Since, India has different religions; there have been a lot of festivals celebrated by different communities.

Each month has at least one festival celebrated in India. For e.g. In January, we celebrate Makar Sankranti. In February, it is Vasant Panchami. In March, it’s Holi. In April, we celebrate Baisakhi. In May, it’s Pooram. In June, it’s Sitalsasthi. In July, we celebrate Rath Yatra. In August, it’s Rakshabandhan. In September, it’s Janmasthmi. In October, we celebrate Navratri. In November, it’s Diwali and in December, it’s Christmas.

My blog is trying to focus on the important festivals celebrated in each month by various religions and out of them, my favourite festivals has been Makar Sankranti, Holi, Navratri and Diwali.

January – Makar Sankranti

Makar Sankranti is an Indian festival, celebrated almost everywhere in the country. Makar Sankranti is a popular Indian festival and it is celebrated in many parts of the country with great enthusiasm. It is a harvest festival which is basically celebrated in the Hindu communities. In India, the states of Bihar, Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu celebrate the festival with great enthusiasm. In Tamil Nadu the festival is known as Pongal, in Assam as Bhogali Bihu, in Punjab as Lohri, in Gujarat and Rajasthan as Uttarayan.

Source: www.google.com

I have been following Uttarayan festivals for many years and my blog would be focusing more about Uttarayan and how it is celebrated in the state of Gujarat.

The festival of Uttarayan is one of the biggest festivals in Gujarat. In Gujarat, you get Uttarayan day a holiday, where you will see people of all ages fly kites from early morning till late evening. You will find rooftops crowded and also there is fun-loving rivalry with each other in kite flying skills with delicious traditional Gujarati food as the trademarks of the day.

I use to go on the roof to fly the kites from early morning 8am till evening 7pm and then at night, we all friends use to lit and hang candles on the thread when our kite is flying in the air. We all use to have lunch and dinner on our roof and my friend Maulik always brought drum with him so while flying kites we use to enjoy dancing and have lots of fun.