Makar Sankranti is the harvest festival celebrated across India with great fervour and gaiety. On January 14, the Sun enters the Capricorn zodiac during the winter solstice and moves towards the northern hemisphere. The day holds great significance as days start getting longer.
It is known as Lohri and Maghi in North, Bhogali Bihu in Assam, Makara Sankramana in Karnataka, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Poush Sankranti in West Bengal, Uttarayan in Gujarat, Uttarayani in Uttarakhand, Shishur Saenkraat in Kashmir, Khichdi Parv in UP and Makar Sankranti in various parts of India.
What bonds the different communities is the abundance of food and sweets, prepared traditionally from fresh and seasonal produce that is nutritious and delicious. It is also time to give food and clothes to the poor and needy.
The ritual of preparing food from gud (jaggery), til (sesame), rice and seasonal vegetables shows dietary significance. The traditional sweets, rich in minerals, provide energy in the cold months. The ubiquitous til-gud sweets also come with a message. There is a saying in Kannada — ‘Ellu bella thindu olle maathadi’ and in Marathi — ‘Tilgul ghya god god bola’, which means eat the til-gud sweet and speak good or just as sweetly.
The seasonal vegetables too add to the flavours of the festive spread and also provide the much-needed nutrition. Gujarat’s seasonal delicacy Undhiyu, prepared from green beans, new baby potatoes, sweet potatoes, yam, brinjals with muthias (fenugreek leaves in fried gram flour) goes well with puris and crisp jalebis. In Tamil Nadu, pongal kootu is made of seasonal vegetables like broad beans, pumpkin, ash gourd, potato, raw banana, sweet potato and lima beans. As Makar Sankranti is a transition from winter to spring. Aaya basant, paalaa urant means the spring is here, cold is nowhere... quite a common saying in Punjab. There is much enthusiasm as people gather around the warmth of Lohri (lighting of the bonfire) offering gur aur til ki gajjak, til ki rewari, puffed rice and popcorns as they go around the fire. Food like sarson ka saag and makki ki roti with butter and ganne ki ras ki kheer (sugarcane juice) are prepared.
In the north, panjiri, a mixture of dry fruits, nuts, seeds and gondh (edible gum) and laddoos provide warmth, nutrition and energy on the go. In Uttar Pradesh khichdi is relished while ghughute (deep-fried sweet made of wheat flour and jaggery) is made in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. Gajjak of Madhya Pradesh is popular in northern India.
In southern India, appalu is a crispy-fried sweet made of flour of rice, wheat and jaggery in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In Karnataka, ellu bella, a mixture of sesame, jaggery, peanuts and coconut are a must. Little girls go about distributing this with pieces of sugarcane and sugar candy. At home, people make delicacies like kosambari (salad with moong dal), holige (Karnataka’s puran poli), payasam, avarekalu (freshly harvested hyacinth beans or field beans used to prepare curry and snack), pongal among others. Sweet potatoes, pumpkin, sugarcane, radish, bajra, jowar abound during this time.
In Tamil Nadu, pongal means ‘to overflow’ and refers to the dish prepared from rice, ghee and pulses, the sakkarai pongal made of the first rice harvest is integral to the celebration. Rice, turmeric and sugarcane are auspicious in pongal. The crisp urad dal murukku and pongal kootu are also prepared.
In eastern India chura-dahi, black and white til ka laddoo, tilkut and moodhi (puffed rice) laddoo of Bihar and makara chaula is made of powdered freshly harvested rice mixed with coconut, milk, sugarcane and fruits in Odisha. Bengal has deep-fried gokul pitha and patishapta (rice flour crepes filled with coconut, jaggery and mawa) and payesh puli — stuffed coconut in rice dumplings in milk payesh of Bengal are a must for celebration.
In western India, til-gud vadi and puran poli (chana dal and jaggery stuffed parathas) of Maharashtra and pheni and ghevar of Rajasthan are integral to Makar Sankranti. In Gujarat, kite flying and munching on farsan (snacks) go hand-in-hand on terraces. Fluffy dhoklas, chikki and chavanu (fried tumtum, sev, fulvadi, boondi, peanuts, gathiya, vatana and an assortment of pulses) and seasonal fruits like guavas, juicy sugarcane, ber (Indian jujube) and the red and sour chani bor and hot masala chai keep you full as the kites soar in the sky. Another speciality is khichdo, made of vegetables and daliya (broken wheat). In the northeast, Bhogali Bihu is a celebration of bountiful nature in Assam and is linked to rice cultivation. The Bihu special pitha is made of rice varieties like bora-dhan, malbhog-dhan, beji-dhan or sokua-dhan. It is laborious to pound the rice in dhenki to prepare pithaguri (rice flour) that is used to make til-pitha and narikol-pitha (pancake is folded with the stuffing of sesame or coconut with jaggery). In Manipur, kangsubi is made from sesame seeds and sugarcane juice that is baked and cut into squares.