20 January 12, 2018 LOHRI T
he people of Punjab celebrate Lohri with utmost zest every year on 13th January. It is believed that the festival is celebrated on the day when days start becoming shorter and the nights start becoming longer. This festival is celebrated as the harvest festival and on this day people light bonfire, sing and dance in joy to pay respect to the Dulha Batti. Though, it is the key festival
Pongal is a four-days-long harvest
festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu, a southern state of India. For as long as people have been planting and gathering food, there has been some form of harvest festival. Pongal, one of the most important popular Hindu festivals of the year. This four-day festival of thanksgiving to nature takes its name from the Tamil word meaning “to boil” and is held in the month of Thai (January-February) during the season when rice and
of Punjabis but some Northern states of India also observe this festival which including Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. The people of Sindhi community observe this festival as “Lal Loi”. Punjabi people living in various corners of the world also celebrate Lohri with same fervour. The Reason behind Lohri Celebration People have many assumptions regarding the celebration of Lohri festival in Punjab, some of which include: Lohri is considered to have been derived from the word “Loi”,
who was the wife of kabir, the great saint. While some people believe that it originated from the word “Loh” which is a device used for making chapattis. In some parts of the state people also believe that the festival’s name originated from the name of the sister of Holika, who survived the fire while Holika herself died. Besides that, some people also believe that that the word Lohri originated from the word tilorhi which comes from the combination of the words rorhi and til. Modern day Lohri Celebration
Earlier people used to celebrate Lohri by gifting each other Gajaks, while in the contemporary world the trend has been gradually changing and people prefer gifting chocolates and cakes instead of gajaks. With the increasing threat to the environment with the roaring pollution agents people have become more conscious and they prefer not to light up bonfires. People avoid cutting on more trees and plants for lighting up bonfires on Lohri. Instead they celebrate Lohri by plnting more and more trees so that they can contribute to the en-
vironmental protection in the long run. -lohrifes-
other cereals, sugar-cane, and turmeric (an essential ingredient in Tamil cooking) are harvested. Mid-January is an important time in the Tamil calendar. The harvest festival, Pongal, falls typically on the 14th or the 15th of January and is the quintessential ‘Tamil Festival’. Pongal is a harvest festival, a traditional occasion for giving thanks to nature, for celebrating the life cycles that give us grain. Tamilians say ‘Thai pirandhaal vazhi pirakkum’, and believe that knotty family problems will be solved with the advent of the Tamil month Thai that begins on Pongal day. This is traditionally the month of weddings. This is not a surprise in a largely
agricultural community - the riches gained from a good harvest form the economic basis for expensive family occasions like weddings. The First Day This first day is celebrated as Bhogi festival in honor of Lord Indra, the supreme ruler of clouds that give rains. Homage is paid to Lord Indra for the abundance of harvest,
thereby bringing plenty and prosperity to the land. The Second Day On the second day of Pongal, the puja or act of ceremonial worship is performed when rice is boiled in milk outdoors in a earthenware pot and is then symbolically offered to the sun-god along with other oblations. All people wear traditional dress and markings, and their is an interesting ritual where husband and wife dispose off elegant ritual utensils specially used for the puja. The Third Day The third day is
known as Mattu Pongal, the day of Pongal for cows. Multi-colored beads, tinkling bells, sheaves of corn and flower garlands are tied around the neck of the cattle and then are worshiped. They are fed with Pongal and taken to the village centers. The Fourth Day The Fourth day is known as Knau or Kannum Pongal day. On this day, a turmeric leaf is washed and is then placed on the ground. On this leaf are placed, the left overs of sweet Pongal and Venn Pongal, ordinary rice as well as rice colored red and yellow, betel leaves, betel nuts, two pieces of sugarcane, turmeric leaves, and plantains. -pongalfestival.org
er, the Sun returns to the same spot in the sky every 365.25 days. So, there is a difference of 11.25 days between the solar and lunar years. Every 2.5 years, therefore, an intercalary month (the Adhik Maas) is added to the lunar calendar to roughly synchronise the two. This adjustment in lunar calender and the solar calender is important and critical because weather patterns follow the solar calendar, not the lunar. On the other hand, accurate ‘tithi’ and ‘mahurat’ (or ‘muhurat’) calculations are better done with the relatively faster moving moon. In fact, to make
such calculations more accurate, the celestial path of the moon, which is slightly off from the path of the sun, is divided into 27 ‘nakshatras’ while the path of the sun is divided into 12 ‘rashis’.(Thus the celestial path of sun and moon have been divided into 12 rashis (the zodiac signs) or the 27 ‘Nakshatras’, thus can be said 1rashi =2.25 Nakshatras). The case of Makar Sankranti is different and unique to other festivals : it goes entirely by the solar calendar. The clue to this mystery lies in the fact that Makar Sankranti is also called
Uttarayan, or the day on which the sun begins its northward journey. In this system, the sun enters different zodiacs on a fixed day with an error of one day on either side depending on how close you are to the leap year. So around mid-December, the sun rises in the Sagittarius or Dhanush, in January in Capricorn or Makara, and so on. We celebrate January 14 as the day on which the sun begins to rise in the Makara Rashi, Sankranti meaning entering. -quora.com
MAKAR SANKRANTI M
akar Sankranti is the only Hindu festival celebrated on a fixed calendric day, 14/15 January of the solar calendar(English Calender) . Whereas all other Indian festivals are celebrated as per the lunar calendar(Hindu Calendar) , which make their days of celebration on the solar calendar vary every year . For
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example, Diwali, which is celebrated on the no moon day (Amawasya) of 8th month, Kartikh, of Hindu Calander, and as we notice the Diwali falls on different dates of the English calender every year. The difference is easy to see. In India, we follow a lunar calendar; the moon goes from new moon to new moon or full moon to full moon in 29.5 days. We get 12 full moons in 354 days, making a lunar calendar year 354 days long. Howev-
INDO-AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2018 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM