Happy Lohri/Makar Sankranti/Pongal to all

Celebrating with Toy-Kraft

In India, celebrations are a way of life.

Our country is a remarkable kaleidoscope of divergent faiths and colourful states each celebrating their history and heritage. Being an agricultural and pastoral country, Mother Nature too is feted with much aplomb.

As children, we grew up with grannies and joint families and joined in the festivities. Our children unfortunately growing up in cities and metros and nuclear families sometimes remain bereft of their heritage.

This year at Toy-Kraft we plan to celebrate our vast diverse heritage and revive our culture with our children…

January is the time of bonfires and good food! It’s also the time when our skies are dotted with technicolour kites and we welcome spring.

According to the lunar calendar, the sun transits from the Tropic of Cancer into the Tropic of Capricorn in the month of Poush. The sun thus begins to face the northern hemisphere of the earth.

Celebrated as Lohri in the north, Uttarayan and Makar Sankranti in the west and Pongal in the south, it signifies the beginning of spring.

Lohri is celebrated by a bonfire and sweets made from jaggery, sugarcane juice, peanuts and sesame. The ingredients are heat producing and keep the body warm in winters.

In Gujarat and Rajasthan, Uttarayana or the change in wind is marked by several colouful kites. Kite-flying festivals and winter dinner feasts are de riguer for at least 2 days.

In Maharashtra, Karnataka and some parts of Andhra, Makar Sankranti is a day of goodwill and friendship. Sesame chikki laddos and sugardrops are distributed as a symbol of kindness and generosity.

In rural Maharastra, tender jowar is eaten with salt and lime and fruit feasts of guavas, custard apples, grapes and oranges are eaten.

Down south, Sankranti becomes Pongal – a harvest festival. The first rice of the new harvest is cooked in different ways and is ritually offered to the Sun God. Special sweets include Sakkarai Pongal (rice cooked in jaggery) and Ven Pongal (rice cooked with green gram, nuts and ghee).

The food cooked is also offered to cows on that day. Festive processions of decorated cows and bulls are taken out. Bull competitions are also held in villages where young men enthusiastically try to capture a wild bull in a ring.

What you can do to celebrate with your child Kite flying and sweet eating is a total given! Other than that, you can check out these fun activities on https://in.pinterest.com/nancyawarren/makar-sankranti/