The festival of Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan festival is celebrated with the end of winter and the start of the spring season. In order to rejoice the zeal of this occasion, Makar Sankranti is mostly held in Eastern and Western India, and Uttarayan in Gujarat. Uttarayan is a wonderful kite flying festival where families, relatives, and friends gather together to enjoy this occasion.
Various kinds of Colorful Kites sold in the shops (Indiatimes.com)
Uttarayan falls on 14th January and the kite flying fest continues on 15th January too. This festival has rejoiced in several destinations of Gujarat, including Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Mandvi, Porbandar, Botad, etc. Children teenagers and elders start playing kites between 8th to 15th January.
Uttarayan – kite flying celebrated on 14th and 15th January (KnowCrazy.com)
Importance of Makar Sankranti [Uttarayan]
Makar Sankranti follows the sun’s movement which represents the commencement of the sun’s shift into Capricorn zodiac [Makar is Capricorn, Sankranti is transition]. Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan is the only fiesta that falls on a fixed date, 14th January every year. Makar Sankranti is mainly celebrated in the western parts and eastern parts of India. Winter ends on this day officially and a fresh season begins with the arrival of spring. Men and women do Makar Sankranti puja on 14th January, and few traditional people keep fast too on this day.
www.desiglitters.com)
Kite Flying in Gujarat
There is a holiday on the day of Uttarayan in the whole of Gujarat where the entire families covering families, friends, and relatives gather together on the terraces and engage themselves in crazy kite flying. The excitement level of people touches the sky as they cheer each other to maintain their colorful kites flying higher up.
Children and elders fly kites in the sky (YouTube)
Children are extremely thrilled as they move to the rooftops from the morning itself soon after they leave their beds. There would be crowded groups of people in every rooftop kites in their hands. They shout ‘kai po che’ excitedly when one person cuts the other person’s kite in the sky. The whole morning and afternoon are spent in kite flying and cutting each other’s threads. Guys and girls even put on the music and dance on non-stop Bollywood music like Kaipoche (Hum Dil De Vhuke Sanam), Nashe Si Chadh Gayi and Ude Dil Befikre (Befikre), Bawara Mann and Go Pagal (Jolly LLB 2), The Humma Song (OK Jannu movie), Kaabil Hoon and Mon Amour (Kaabil movie) and many other Gujarati songs related to Uttarayan.
Teenagers busy with their patangs and manjhas (Varanasi View)
Paper Lanterns lighted and flown in the air
During Makarsankranti or Uttarayan, people light up paper lanterns or ‘tukkals’ that fly up in the sky automatically with the flow of the wind, and the whole sky is brightened with magnificent visual kite imageries.
Sky Lantern flies on the evening of Uttarayan (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
The whole sky will be lit up with these lanterns that one can’t take off their eyes from them. This is certainly an amazing feeling to look up to the sky and feel the Uttarayan vibes.
Gujarat sees many lanterns in the sky (www.keyword-suggestions.com)
Delicious Uttarayan Dishes
The festival of Uttrayan surely goes beyond patang (kite) and manja (sharp thread ties to the kite). Some of the special delicacies that Gujaratis make at homes on the wonderful occasion of Uttrarayan are undhiyu, ponk pakoras, khaman, garam jalebis, lilva kachoris, sevs, and other wintry farsans.
Jalebis and Fafdas as snacks (Times Food)
Mini samosas as delicacies for Kite Festival (food.ndtv.com)
Few of the other significant festival goodies prepared at homes include spicy khichdo, sweet khichdo, adadiyu, methi paak and shalam paak. Uttarayan also signifies boxes full of badaam chikkis, till laddoos, jaggery laddoos, till chikkis, chakris, sing ni chikki, til papdi, dry sweet items, varieties of dry fruits, etc. People arrange for these various delicacies and relish them on the terraces while playing kites with families and friends. If the mouthwatering savories can’t be made at home, one can buy them from the nearest shops.
Variety Chikkis relished on Uttarayan (Pinterest)
International Kite Festivals in Gujarat
The capital city of Gujarat, Ahmadabad has been hosting International Kite Festival every year since 1989, offering expert kite makers and flyers from across the world in order to showcase their perfect kite creations in distinct designs and wooing the crowds with their magnificently unusual large kites.
International Kite Festival celebrated in Gujarat (Pinterest)
In the last few years, master kite makers from Malaysia, Singapore, China, USA, and many other abroad cities are creatively designed kites. Malaysia experts design their Wau-balang kites; Indonesia brings their IIayang-IIayanghave kites, Japanese bring their Rokkaku fighting kites, along with Chinese flying dragons, USA’s gigantic Banner kites, Italian Sculptural kites, and many other trendy high-tech wonders are exhibited in the sky for the people to view and cheer heartily.
International Kite Festival held in Surat, Ahmedabad and Baroda (Times of India)
Even trained kite flyers fly 500 kites on a single string that is a huge attraction. Apart from Ahmadabad, even Surat and Vadodara are also organizing the International kite festival in their cities on 13th and 14th January.
International Kites flying in Gujarat on Uttarayan (The Bapu)
Beautiful Kites in the Sky (Happy Uttarayan 2018)
Other Festivals celebrated in India
- Pongal is one of the popular Hindu fests celebrated in Tamil Nadu (South India) beginning from 14th January. It is a four-day harvest festival for thanksgiving towards nature for giving them fruitful grains. People in Tamil Nadu rejoice in the Pongal festival for the celebrations of harvests.
Pongal Celebrations (liveuttarpradesh.com)
The first day called Bhogi Pongal is in honor of Lord Indra; the second day is offered in honor of Lord Surya; the third day called Mattu Pongal is dedicated to the cows and offering Pongal to them, including bull races and distinct festivities; and the fourth day called Kannum Pongal is performed with a ritual where families have to wash a turmeric leaf and place it on the ground, envelop it with sweet Pongal that is leftover from previous days, also including plantains and sugarcane.
Pongal festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu (State Express India)
- Lohri is celebrated on the evening of 13th January representing the end of harvest in North India, and also marks the worship of fire. The Lohri fire is lit which gets purified and is valued as a deity. People surround the Lohri fire and put different grains like puffed rice, peanuts, popcorns, and other related goodies to it in the form of feeding the fire. After this, everyone sitting there feed these grains to each other in happiness.
Lohri celebrations by North Indian people (Hindustan News Hub)
Wishing you all a very Happy Uttarayan and Happy Makar Sankranti! May this festival shower love, immense happiness, and prosperity in your lives, just like the colorful kites that dot the sky! 🙂
Sanghamitra Roychoudhary
Follow me as @SanghamitraRch on Twitter.
Latest posts by Sanghamitra Roychoudhary (see all)
- Tata IPL 2024 Season 17 Starts from March 12 till May 26, 2024 - Mar 17, 2024
- Best Safety Tips to Celebrate Holi Festival - Mar 10, 2024
- Star Plus kickstarts with Udne Ki Aasha serial from March 12 - Mar 3, 2024
A proficient Web Content Developer (Technical and Non-Technical Writer), Blogger, and Freelance Content Writer. A happy author of www.w3buzz.in! She is a creative person, always eager to learn new aspects, and seeking new ways for improving skills in her field. She loves traveling & photography; also, a sports enthusiast!
Follow me as @SanghamitraRch on Twitter.
Marcos
Hello from Brazil. I’m working an educational video about kites to be freely distributed to schools. One partof the video is about kite festivals around the word. Would it be possible to use some of the photos in this article. If ok tellme how credits should be mentioned. And if you have a short video it would be very nice as well. Thank you very much.
Sanghamitra Roychoudhary
You can get kite images from Google Images, but do give that image the “credit” mentioned over there.