Makara Sankranthi (Pongal)

 Makara Sankranthi is the harvest festival,which is all about doing things together as a family.
This festival is celebrated in various parts of India.
While the traditional Indian Calendar is based on lunar positions, Sankranti is a solar event. So while dates of all Hindu festivals keep changing as per the Gregorian Calendar, the date of Makar Sankranti remains constant over a long term.It is celebrated for 4 days.
First day(Jan13th): Bhogi Festival,Second day(Jan 14th): Sankranthi or Pongal Festival,
Third day(Jan15th): Kanuma Festival,Fourth day(Jan16th): Mukkanuma Festival

On Bhogi Panduga people wake up early and build a bonfire using old broomsticks, mats, paper and firewood signifying the end of evil. The courtyards are cleaned and beautiful muggulu/rangoli patterns are drawn ,coloured and decorated with marigold flower stuck on cowdung balls,Pasupu/Kumkuma,Navadhanyalu in the center of Rangoli/Muggu and that is called Sankranthi Gobbemalu.
People in Andhra Pradesh Invite Lord lakshmi by drawing these colorful rangolies/Muggulu. Ladies wake up early in the morning and participate actively in rangoli event and they take this as a competition. They wanted their Rangolies to be bigger than any others so they cover entire road in front part of their house.

The second day is Makara Sankranti , also called "Pedda Panduga" , which literally means "the big festival", in some places this festival is also called as Pongal. Pongal is a sweet dish prepared from the recent rice harvest.
Everyone wear new clothes, prays to god, and make offerings of traditional food.

Married women will perform Sankranthi nomulu ,they buy 13 new items such as silver items, steel plates, kumkumkaya ,steel boxes,spoons ...etc. They keep them infront of god and perform puja.After the pooja is done they keep one item for themselves and distribute the rest as vayanam to married women.In some parts of Andhra Pradesh this is very important nomu for the newly wed bride.

There is tradition of decorating cow with different coloured clothes it is called as Gangireddu , they come to every house and play music so that the house owners come and give their offerings such as clothes and food to the cow(Gangireddu).

Sankranthi is also called as festival of kites,the generic name for a kite is 'Patang' .These kites are made of special light-wt kite paper and bamboo and are mostly rhombus shaped with central spine and a single bow.
Now-a-days we see beautiful kites in the market.People offer thousands of their colorful oblations to the Sun in the form of beautiful kites .Many people fly kites on that day.Many kite competitions are held on the day of sankranthi.

The Third day of Sankranthi festival is Kanuma. Hindu Mythology says that Lord
Krishna lifted the Govardhana Giri on this day to protect the people of Gokhulam from strong rains and thunderstorms. This day is dedicated to Cows and Bulls. These animals are decorated with colors and flowers and they are worshipped.People in villages perform puja to their agriculture tools used for harvesting.

The Fourth Day of Sankranthi festival is Mukkanuma. It is a day of Get together where people socialize and go out on picnics.

Sweet Pongal ,Ariselu and Sakinalu are the traditional food items which we prepare for Sankranthi.