Makar Sankrati : Another opportunity to “ring out the old, and ring in the new”

Makar Sankrati : Another opportunity to “ring out the old, and ring in the new”

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” - Alfred Tennyson.

Tennyson’s above poetry is what worked in my favour to try and motivate my wife to let go of the past to ring in the new. The end of the year - 2018, and beginning of the new year - 2019, have not particularly been fair to us. We lost our father on the last day of 2018 - December 31, 2018, and if that was a terrible beginning for the new year which was to dawn soon, we had a much more worse shock that was yet to come. Just when we were coming to terms with the loss of my father, another tragedy of the untimely death of my brother in law, Pramod Angadi (my wife’s younger brother), struck us on the 7th January. We had just completed all the rituals associated with the death of our father and were returning back to Mumbai from our native place on 6th Jan 2019. We reached Mumbai on that night at around 9 PM and we were informed that Pramod was admitted to the hospital. We rushed to the Hinduja Hospital in Khar, where he was admitted to the hospital. But then destiny perhaps had a different plan. My wife could not even talk to my brother in law, since he had already gone into a Comma, when we reached the hospital to meet him. He was just 47 and died of some unexplained medical complications in the Hinduja Hospital, which the hospital authorities attributed to “Sepsis Shock”, a shock that none of us, particularly my wife could come to terms with for a very long time.

It has been a week since the tragic death of my brother in law, yet my wife has continued to be in a state of shock and was unable to move on, despite my best of efforts. The shock of her brothers death has already started taking a toll on her health and my wife is not able to understand that she must come out of the shock as early as possible else. No amount of my love, affection and counselling is helping her to try and come back to normalcy and start taking food normally. Like her brother she too is a diabetic patient and therefore I knew that indifference towards taking food timely will have a consequence on her health and I had to act fast to try and bring her back to normalcy as early as possible at-least in terms of taking timely food and medicine. The Makar Sankranti, which is celebrated as a New Year’s Day in Karnataka and many other parts of India,  helped me in convincing my wife to let go of the past by quoting Alfred Tennyson “ring out the old, and ring in the new”. I spoke to her of the importance of the Makara Sankranti and how and why this festival is quite important for Indians and that in many parts of India this festival is celebrated as a new year. 

Makar Sankranti (Sankranti meaning ‘movement) is the first major Hindu festival in the Gregorian calendar, celebrated with much fervor across most parts of India. This auspicious day - the harvest day - marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac Capricorn (Makara). This holy festival symbolizes the arrival of spring. Like the socio cultural diversity that spans across India, the Makar Sankranti too has its own geographical variants across the country, yet this day is celebrated with the same enthusiasm all across India. Makara Sankranti is celebrated as Lohri in North India by the Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs, Maghi in adjoining Haryana and Himachal, Sukarat in Central India, Magh or Bhogali Bihu in Assam, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Ghughuti of Uttarakhand, Magh saaj of Himachal, Makara Chaula of Odisha, Makar Sankranti in Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Paush Sankranti in Bengal, Bihar, uttarayan in Gujrat and Rajasthan, Sukaraat in Madhya Pradesh and Khichdi Parwa in parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh and Saen-kraat in Kashmir. This festival is also celebrated in our neighbouring countries as Maghe Sankranti in Nepal, Songkran in Thailand, Moha Sangkran in Cambodia, Thingyan in Myanmar and  Pi Ma Lo in Laos. Makar Sankranti is also associated with kite flying, dances, bonfires, fairs and mass pilgrimages to sacred rivers.

The festival of Makara Sankranti marks the onset of Uttarayan - a period when the Sun starts its six months journey towards the north and making the days longer with more light and less darkness. This period is considered as auspicious for the Hindus, who observe a wide variety of spiritual practices on this day. Many take a holy dip in rivers, to absolve them of their ‘past sins’. The festival is also known for a rich variety of food delicacies, which are prepared and offered as ‘Prasada’ to the deity while thanking almighty for a good harvest. Many sweets, like laddoos made of til and jaggery, patishaptas, jaggery and rice pudding, among others are prepared during this period. The day is spent singing traditional songs, dancing and even preparing a bonfire in the evening.

India is a land of diversity with many religions, languages and regional cultures, which coexist in social harmony. This diversity also gets carried to the calendars that govern peoples’ social and religious lives. If one asks many Indians, when is the Indian New Year’s day, it is very easy to get different answers. The history of calendars in India is a remarkably complex subject owing to the long continuity of Indian civilization and to the diversity of cultural influences. At the time of our Independence and a decade later, it was observed that there were about 30 calendars in use for setting religious festivals for Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains in India. Some of these calendars were also used for civil dating. These calendars were based on some common principles, though they had local characteristics determined by long-established customs and the astronomical practices of local calendar makers. In addition, Muslims in India used the Islamic calendar, and the Indian government used the Gregorian calendar for administrative purposes. With so many calendars in vogue in India, the Government of India under Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, deemed it fit to have a wholistic view to the issue of calendars and their usage.

It is for this reason and in observation of the fact that there were many different calendars that were used in India, each of which had slight differences, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, (CSIR) Government of India (of which NCSM was a part until parting ways in 1978) appointed a Calendar Reform Committee, in November 1952, under the chairmanship of the renowned scientist Dr. Meghnad Saha, with the following terms of reference ; “To examine all the existing calendars which are being followed in the country at present and after a scientific study of the subject, submit proposals for an accurate and uniform calendar for the whole of India". The distinguished Calendar reforms Committee consisted of Prof. M.N. Saha, (Chairman), Prof. A.C. Banerji, Vice-Chancellor, Allahabad University, Dr. K.L. Daftari, Nagpur, Shri J.S. Karandikar, Ex-Editor, The Kesari, Poona, Dr. Gorakh Prasad, D.Sc., Allahabad University, Prof. R.V. Vaidya, Madhav College, Ujjain, and Shri N.C. Lahiri, Calcutta (Secretary). (Dr. Gorakh Prasad and Shri N.C. Lahiri came in place of Prof. S.N. Bose and Dr. Akbar Ali who were originally appointed but were unable to serve).

The committee studied various calendars that were in vogue in India and after close examination of these calendars recommended a uniform all-India calendar for both civil and religious use. They recommended a unified solar calendar for civil use. The Government of India accepted the proposal and introduced it as the Indian national calendar with effect from 22nd March 1957. The Government of India however continues to use the Gregorian Calendar for administrative use.

The proposed National Calendar is a modification of the existing Indian solar calendars. The principle unit of the calendar remains the civil day. The solar era chosen is the Saka national era. The national calendar is made to approximate the tropical year and not the traditional sidereal year. The calendar year starts on the day after the March Equinox day (March 22/21). Unlike the traditional solar calendars the solar months have fixed number of days restricted to either 30 or 31 days. This length still depended on the time taken for the Sun to travel the concerned tropical rasi instead of sidereal rasi. The first rasi, Mesh begins at the March equinox, which is also the starting point of the sayana year. The five months from the second to the sixth have mean lengths of over 30.5 days and so their lengths are rounded up to 31 days. The remaining months have 30 days. Names for the solar months are kept the same as those of the Indian solar calendar. The first month in the Indian calendar is named as Chaitra, followed by Vaisakha and so on.

The traditional New Year, which is celebrated across most parts of the world on January 1 is therefore not the only new year for the Indians. Besides the Makar Sankrati, there are other days which are celebrated as New Year’s Day. Some of these include, as per the lunar calendar, the spring harvest time in April which is celebrated as Vaisakhi or Baisakhi in north and central India, Rongali Bihu in Assam, Tamil Putthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala, Bishuva Sankranti in Odisha and Poila Boishakh in Bengal. Ugadi is the New Year's Day for the Hindus of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. Gudi Padwa is celebrated in Maharashtra, Goa and Konkan belt as new year. Cheiraoba in Manipur, Navreh in Kashmir and Cheti Chand is celebrated by Sindhi Hindus as new year. In Gujarat, Bestu Varas is celebrated around October/November time as new year. We therefore have many more opportunities to celebrate the new year and to “ring out the old and ring in the new”.

For those of you for whom the new year 2019 (as per Gregorian Calendar) has began on a bad note don’t be disappointed, there are other days ahead, when you can ring out the old and ring in the new. Wishing you all a very happy Makara Sankaranti and a happy new year.