Makar Sankranti

Watching the Pongal cook

Makar Sankranti marks the northward movement of the Sun from Dhanu rashi(Sagitarius) to Makar rashi(Capricorn) and is celebrated 3 weeks after the Winter solstice. Unlike most Hindu festivals that follow the lunar calender, Sankranti, being a solar event remains relatively fixed on the Gregorian calender at Jan 14th.

At Golden Bead, Sankranti or Pongal is a time for fun and traditional festive food - yella, bella, piping hot pongal (salty Ven Pongal and sweet Chakra Pongal), roasted peanuts, sweet potato. Anita aunty explained the significance of the festival to the children : how Pongal in Tamil means "boiling over" or "spill over" and the boiling over of milk in a clay pot symbolizes material abundance for the household.

Aunties cooked the salty & sweet pongal by boiling rice & lentils with slat or jaggery in new clay pots & later topping the sweet pongal with brown sugar, ghee, cashew nuts and raisins. The elementary children formed small groups and got to roast and cook their own peanuts, averekai and sweet potato on small open stoves using the coal and dry sticks they had collected. Of course, keeping the fire alive wasn't as easy as it looked!

The pre- primary children watched the elementary children cooking and also made a salad using the lentils and vegetables. Finally everyone sat down to a delicious festival lunch on banana leaf !