The harvest festival in India

While Chennai celebrates the harvest festival "PONGAL", this day is celebrated across the south asian region by various names - Makara Shankranthi in Karnataka/ Bangalore, Pedda Penduga in Andhrapradesh/Hyderabad, Lori in Punjab and also Thingyan in Myanmar (Burma).

It is certainly harvest season in most of the region and each state has it's own version. In some states you'd see very colorfully painted bulls where they make them jump across a bed of coals. In parts of the country, it is time for "flying kites". It is also a day which sees millions of devotees taking a "holy dip" in the major rivers of India eg. Ganges, Cauvery etc at dawn.

The day actually has a astronomical significance. It is the day when the Sun enters the constellation of Capricorn (Makara in local lingo) on it's journey. Simply put, this is the day, the Sun enters it's northward journey from the nadir of the winter solstice.

People across a wide swath of the continent prepare a special mixture - they cut cubes of Jaggery, Copra etc and mix it with Sesame seeds, broken peanuts to make a snack that is loved and enjoyed by over a billion people. Each region has it's own name for this - "Yellu Bella" in Kannada, "Til Gul" in Marathi etc.

From the MAC Support team