Makar Sankranti 2022 is on 14th January Friday. We also know the festival by the name uttarayan or Makar Sankramana. According to Hindi Calendar or Panchang, We celebrate Makar Sankranti in Poush month. That is why people also call the festival “Poush Sankranti.”
What Is Makar Sankranti Or Makar Sankramana
At the festival, the sun enters its son’s that is Saturn’s star sign Capricorn. The entrance of the sun into Capricorn, we call it as uttarayan or Makar Sankramana. And the Sankranti meaning is the entrance of the sun into any star sign. Though the Sun enters into every star sign month by month, Sankranti comes every month. But when it enters Capricorn star sign or Makar Rashi, we call it Makar Sankranti.
Makar Sankranti Celebration
Sankranti is celebrated as a kite festival in India. Sky gets covered with colorful kites. On Makar Sankranti, there is a tradition of making Til Gud ladoo and offering it to God as bhog. In Hindi, Til or Tilli stands for Sesame, and Gud stands for Jaggery.
If you wish to know how to make a kite at home, you can easily learn it here.
My Childhood Memories For The Festival
My mother used to make Til Gud Ladoo or Sesame Seeds and Jaggery Ladoo for bhog a night before Makar Sakranti. The next day, we used to wake up early in the morning and had bathed and wear clean clothes, before worshipping God and offering prayers and bhog.
On Sankranti my mother always used to say. “take bath early, else you will become a donkey in your next birth.” So we siblings used to compete for that who will wake up early and take bath. And the sibling who remained unbathed at last, we used to tease him or her as next birth’s donkey. Festivals and celebrations are so much fun during childhood. Aren’t they?
Significance/ Importance Of Makar Sankranti
According to Hindu mythology, there are several stories related to the festival. Some of them are, God Sun visits his son Saturn on Makar Sankranti. According to Hindu mythology, Goddess Ganga got merged into the sea after freeing King Bhagirath’s ancestors. That is why people take a holy dip in the Ganga river on Uttarayan.
There are several stories related to Uttarayan. But according to Skand Puran, in a year, once an incident was there when Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu took a bath in Goddess Ganga River on the same day, same time. And goddess Laxmi, the wife of Lord Vishnu, secretly saw both the deities taking baths in the Ganga river.
Lord Vishnu saw her watching them. He turned to Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva said that he was also aware of the situation. So he said that one of the incarnations of Goddess Laxmi would be “Gupt Laxmi” which is “Hidden Laxmi.” And a person who will donate Laxmi secretly in the form of wealth or money, (since Goddess Laxmi is the sign of wealth and money), will never suffer from a serious ailment in life. That is why there is a tradition of secretly hiding the money in Til Gud Ladoo and donating it to the festival.
Other Interesting Fact From My Childhood
There is one more interesting fact that my grandmother used to tell us. It is that on Makar Sankranti or uttarayan the daylight increases by a size of Til that is sesame. And from that day, the long winter nights start getting shorter, and the daylight becomes longer. That’s why the Makar Sankranti festival is also a symbol of the gradual end of winters, and the beginning of the summer season.
Mythologically, it is all about the Makar Sankranti festival and information, but for us, the Makar Sankranti was the festival of eating Makar Sankranti special Til Gud Ladoo. During childhood, it never mattered how my mom prepared til and jaggery ladoo. But now, since I have also become a mother of my toddler, I understand how important it is for every mother to know the perfect recipe for til laddoo with jaggery.
When we know the facts, significance, and importance of a festival, it doubles the fun behind the celebration of the festival. I hope you must have got a better idea of the significance and importance of the Makar Sankranti festival.
I wish you A very Happy Makar Sankranti 2022.