Makar Sankranti Vegetarian Food Festival
Mother Earth Hindu Temple Glasgow cordially invites all of you to celebrate Makar Sankranti at their Food Festival in Newton Mearns on Saturday 13th January!
About Makar Sankranti Vegetarian Food Festival
Enjoy a bumper harvest this year by sampling wonderful vegetarian and plant-based specialties from different regions of India! There will be family fun including a raffle, jewellery, clothes and snack stalls, Don’t miss out – purchase your tickets as spaces are limited!
Makar Sankranti is an extremely ancient festival quoted in many timeless Hindu scriptures and accounts. Popularly marked by people as a harvest festival, it also marks the movement of the sun from the southern to the northern hemisphere, into Capricorn. It is celebrated by several different Hindu communities hailing from many regions of India; counterpart festivals are variably known by names such as Pongal, Lohri, Bihu, Uttarayan and others. People rejoice and give thanks for harvests, donate food to charity, exchange sweet treats (in some parts of India, treats made from jaggery and sesame are particularly popular), put aside past grudges, and look forward to the gradual transition from winter to spring. Kite flying is also popular on this day in many communities, partly in celebration of the transition of the sun.
It is believed by many that the holy Goddess Ganga descended to Earth, her mighty fall tempered by Lord Shiva’s mighty locks, to cleanse the ancestors of Prince Bhagirath of their sins, and to serve humanity. Makar Sankranti is therefore celebrated with great vigour around the banks of the holy Ganga and particularly where Ganga meets the ocean at the Kalinga Sagar, or Bay of Bengal. Devotees take ceremonial dips in the river and also pray to the sun, chanting the ancient Gayatri Mantra. Various other episodes from Hindu Itihasa (history) are related to this day, for example it is also commemorated by many as the day that Bhishma Pitama from the Mahabharat left his body. Makar Sankranti is more than just a harvest festival, it is testimony to the knowledge of astronomy and other sciences, gathered over thousands of years, by ancient Hindus and Indians. Many people therefore also associate this day with learning and science.
This information is not exhaustive - there are many other regional variations, customs, deeper significances and stories related to this festival.
Of note, this festival is an opportunity to give thanks to Nature for her abundance and to acknowledge the intricate interdependence of everything in this manifest existence - from the interplay of subatomic particles, the panch mahabhutas (five elements), Surya Devtha (the Sun) and other celestial bodies. We are not separate from all of this, but part of it. This Makar Sankranti, let us thank and honour Mother Nature and pledge to prove worthy custodians, and let us come together and enjoy diverse foods from different corners of India.
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