Makara Saṅkrānti · Pongal · Lohṛī — the harvest Sun festival
Sun enters Makara (sidereal Capricorn) · around 14–15 January
Makara Saṅkrānti marks the Sun's entry into the sidereal sign of Makara (Capricorn). Because it follows the Sun, not the Moon, it falls on about 14 January each year, sometimes the 15th. It is traditionally the start of Uttarāyaṇa, the Sun's northward course and the “day of the gods”, and it comes as the winter crop is harvested — so it is both a sacred bath day and a thanksgiving for the harvest. (Because of the slow precession of the equinoxes, the astronomical winter solstice now falls about three weeks earlier, around 21 December.)
At home, take an early bath — in a sacred river if possible, or with a few drops of Gaṅgājala — offer water to the rising Sun with a short Sūrya mantra, and give dāna of sesame, jaggery, rice, blankets or warm clothes. Sesame and jaggery are the taste of the day: til-laḍḍus, chikkī, til-gūḷ. In Maharashtra people share til-gūḷ saying “Til-gūḷ ghyā, goḍ goḍ bolā” — “take sesame and jaggery, and speak sweetly”. In UP and Bihar it is Khichaṛī, and khichaṛī of new rice and lentils is cooked and given.
Tamil Nadu keeps Pongal over four days — Bhogī (discarding the old), Thai Pongal (new rice boiled with milk and jaggery till it “overflows” in a new pot, with cries of “Pongalo Pongal!”), Māṭṭu Pongal (honouring cattle) and Kāṇum Pongal. Punjab and Haryana celebrate Lohṛī the night before with a bonfire, revaṛī, peanuts and popcorn, and songs of Dullā Bhaṭṭī. Gujarat and Rajasthan fill the sky with kites on Uttarāyaṇ — please avoid glass-coated or nylon string, which injures people and birds. Assam feasts at Māgh (Bhogālī) Bihu; Bengal holds Poush Saṅkrānti with piṭhe sweets and the Gaṅgāsāgar Melā; Sabarimala sees the Makaravilakku.
Tradition says that on this day Sūrya visits the home of his son Śani, lord of Makara, setting aside their old differences — a reminder to sweeten relationships, as the til-gūḷ does. The Mahābhārata remembers Bhīṣma, wounded on the battlefield and blessed with the power to choose the time of his death, lying on a bed of arrows until Uttarāyaṇa began before leaving his body. Bengal's tradition holds that on this day the Gaṅgā, following Bhagīratha, reached the sea and the ashes of King Sagara's sons, granting them liberation — the reason pilgrims bathe at Gaṅgāsāgar.
Sūrya · start of Uttarāyaṇa · Holy bath, sesame-jaggery dāna, kites · Pongal, Lohṛī, Bihu, Uttarāyaṇ, Khichaṛī · Mahābhārata (Bhīṣma awaits Uttarāyaṇa)