Makara Shankranthi

Greeting!

January 15th we celebrated 'Makara Shankaranthi' in India.  This is the Suggi or harvest festival for farmers of Karnataka. On this auspicious day, young females (kids and teenagers) wear new clothes to visit near and dear ones with a Sankranti offering in a plate, and exchange the same with other families. This ritual is called "Ellu Birodhu''. Here the plate would normally contain "Ellu" (white sesame seeds) mixed with fried groundnuts, neatly cut dry coconut and fine cut bella (jaggery). The mixture is called "Ellu-Bella". The plate also contains sugar candy moulds of various shapes (Sakkare Acchu) with a piece of sugarcane. This festival signifies the harvest of the season, since sugarcane is predominant in these parts.

In some parts of Karnataka, a newly married woman is required to give away bananas for a period of five years to other married women from the first year of her marriage, but increase the number of bananas in multiples of five. There is also a tradition of some households giving away red berries "Yalchi Kai" along with the above. In North Karnataka, kite flying with community members is also a tradition. Drawing rangoli in groups is another popular event among women during Sankranti.

An important ritual is display of cows and cattle in colourful costumes in an open field. Cows are decorated for the occasion and taken on a procession.

This is my first project for 2015 and I am quite happy to start the year with this auspicious project!

Will be back soon with my next project.........

Revs!