CreditIndia’s calendar is crowded, but few periods carry as much layered meaning as mid-January.Every significant day or event in the Indian calendar has its place, and this stretch of the year is no exception. Rooted in astronomy and agriculture, mid-January marks a decisive seasonal shift — the easing of winter, the completion of harvest cycles, and the promise of longer days ahead.It is also among the earliest major festival periods of the year, arriving with near-universal observance but strikingly different expressions.While the dates are broadly shared across the nation, each state and region interprets the season through its own rituals and memories. For many, it marks the end of the winter harvest; for others, the Sun’s northward journey is welcomed with holy dips and prayer. Among tribal and pastoral communities, the same period becomes a time to honour cattle, ancestry, and cultural continuity.Over time, migration and movement have ensured that these celebrations are no longer confined to a single geography. They overlap, coexist, and travel.
Lohri
Lohri lights up Punjab, Haryana and Punjabi pockets across North India, just as winter hits its peak.At its heart, it’s a harvest celebration, but in practice, it feels like a cultural block party built around a single glowing symbol: the bonfire.Lohri is celebrated the night before Makar Sankranti, when families and neighbours spill outdoors to toss sesame, jaggery, puffed rice, and peanuts into the flames, trading warmth and wishes.
The fire symbolises the sun and serves as a source of warmth and light during the coldest phase of winter. Tossing traditional food into the sacred flames is seen as an offering of gratitude to nature and the sun god for a prosperous harvest.The soundtrack is unmistakably Punjabi. Dhol beats, folk songs, gidda, bhangra, and stories drawn from agrarian life and seasonal lore fill the night.
Lohri stands apart from the wider Sankranti cluster because it doesn’t stretch over days or revolve around elaborate kitchen rituals. Instead, it knits together the community that gathers around the bonfire on a winter evening, turning fire into an altar of closeness and shared warmth.
Makar Sankranti
The main astronomical event marks the Sun’s entry into Capricorn. As the name suggests, Makar refers to Capricorn, and Sankranti means movement or transition. The day, also known as Uttarayan, literally translates to “entry into the north,” hinting at the Sun’s apparent shift that signals longer days.This solar transition acts as the umbrella under which many regional celebrations unfold. As the Sun’s movement heralds longer daylight hours, the festival symbolically marks the end of winter and the approach of spring.
Unlike most Indian festivals that follow the lunar calendar, Makar Sankranti arrives with near-perfect punctuality every year. Celebrated on January 14 or 15, it remains one of the rare festivals tied firmly to the solar calendar.Across North India, the day takes on a spiritual and reflective tone.In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and parts of Madhya Pradesh, devotees take holy dips in rivers at dawn, most famously along the Ganga at Prayagraj, Varanasi, Haridwar, Patna, and Buxar. The transition is believed to wash away negativity and usher in renewal.Pilgrims also perform similar rituals in rural river ghats, ponds, and canals, turning early mornings into a quiet sea of shawls, copper pots, and soft chanting.
Women devotees carry holy Ganga water on their way
Kites fill the sky. Food traditions in this belt skew warm, simple, and seasonal.In Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, families typically cook khichdi, a dish made with new rice, moong dal, and ghee, often served with chokha, pickles, or curd. The menu also includes sweets made of white and black sesame seeds and jaggery, locally known as tilkut.In Jammu, too, the day is marked with river rituals and temple visits along the Tawi and Chenab, extending the same spiritual rhythm into the hills.These northern and central rituals create a layer of Sankranti that feels quiet, earthy, and devotional.Holy water at dawn, flames in temple courtyards, steaming bowls of khichdi at noon.
Tusu Parab
Head east into the Adivasi belts of Jharkhand, and Sankranti transforms into Tusu Parab, a tribal harvest festival with its own poetic language.Through December, girls craft clay Tusu idols symbolising fertility, virtue, and hope. And then comes what, without which any Indian celebration feels incomplete: folk songs.Rich with indigenous storytelling, these songs accompany dances, feasts, and finally river immersions on January 14.Here, there are no kites or bonfires. Tusu Parab is defined by women-led rituals, music, and narratives that centre Adivasi identity rather than mainstream Hindu iconography.
Uttarayani Fair
In the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, Makar Sankranti reshapes itself into the Uttarayani Fair. The celebration becomes a confluence of pilgrimage, cultural exhibition, and village fair. Bageshwar emerges as the epicentre, drawing devotees, traders, folk performers, and travellers into one dense swirl.
Unlike the domestic, kitchen-centric Sankranti celebrations people often imagine, this one lives outdoors among crowded lanes, temple bells, street snacks, shopping stalls, and river rituals. It’s communal, historical, and deliberately noisy.The holy dip here isn’t merely symbolic; it is a ritual of renewal.Pilgrims line the riverbanks before sunrise, waiting to step into icy waters believed to cleanse sins and set the year on a spiritually auspicious path. Families travel from across the hills to take the Magh Snan, a tradition that has survived centuries, binding faith, folklore, and landscape into one cold yet deeply cherished rite.
Sakraat
Move westward, and Sankranti becomes Sakraat or Sankrant. Widely observed in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, Sakraat is a quieter, social celebration anchored in sesame-jaggery sweets and house-to-house exchanges.Every year, Sakraat arrives on January 14, but what sets it apart isn’t spectacle; it’s restraint.
Til-gul laddoos, warming winter snacks, and the familiar reminder — “til-gul ghya, aani goad-goad bola” (“take this sweet, and speak sweetly”) — dominate the day. Women often lead these exchanges, visiting neighbours and reinforcing social bonds through food.In many ways, Sakraat functions as a social reset, symbolising new beginnings, repaired relationships, and a softer start to the year.
Uttarayan
In Gujarat, Makar Sankranti turns into the high-energy, big-sky spectacle known as Uttarayan.Rooftops fill with people, music spills from balconies, and entire cityscapes are swallowed by battling kites.
Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot transform into open-air arenas. “Kai Po Che!” echoes across neighbourhoods as kite strings snap and victories are claimed.Uttarayan usually falls on January 14, but celebrations stretch far beyond a single day through International Kite Festival events hosted across the state.
A large number of people throng the kite market in Ahmedabad
Here, the festival becomes sport, performance, and tourism rolled into one.
Magh Bihu
In Assam, the season unfolds as Magh Bihu, also called Bhogali Bihu.The celebrations span several days, marking the end of the harvest cycle when granaries are full and agricultural labour finally eases.
The lead-up begins with Uruka, an evening of collective feasting where families cook together. Bonfires (Meji), fishing in local ponds, and shared breakfasts define the rhythm.While bonfires may visually echo Lohri, Magh Bihu carries a distinct cultural signature shaped by the broader Bihu tradition, especially its dance.Bihu Nritya is fast, youthful, and expressive, marked by hip sways, brisk steps, and rhythmic arm movements that mirror courtship and nature.
Artists perform the traditional Bihu dance
Music relies on folk instruments like the dhol, pepa (buffalo horn pipe), gogona (bamboo reed), and toka, creating a soundscape that feels both agricultural and celebratory.Magh Bihu is less a single festival day and more a cultural season, celebrating abundance, completion, and the simple relief that the fields have yielded their promise.
Pongal
Further south, Tamil Nadu observes Pongal as a four-day celebration.Bhogi on January 14, Thai Pongal on January 15, Mattu Pongal on January 16, and Kanum Pongal on January 17 in 2026 together form a ritual arc, each day marked by distinct customs.
Surya Pongal centres on Sakkarai Pongal, made from freshly harvested rice and offered to the Sun in gratitude for a good harvest.Mattu Pongal places cattle at the heart of the celebration. Bulls and cows are adorned with paint, garlands, bells, and special feed, recognising their role as partners in agriculture.
No other mid-January celebration elevates cattle quite like Pongal does. For a full day, they move from the fields into the centre of ritual life.Kanum Pongal closes the festival with community visits, picnics, and riverside outings.
Pedda Panduga
Across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Sankranti season peaks with Pedda Panduga, literally “the big festival.”Homes are cleaned, new clothes bought, thresholds decorated with muggulu, and sugarcane stalks and turmeric plants set up as symbols of prosperity.Alongside celebration, Pedda Panduga carries a quieter ritual layer. Many households observe shraddha, offering food to honour ancestors and seek blessings.Traditional dishes like ariselu, boorelu, sakkara pongali, and seasonal curries appear on banana leaves, followed by the ceremonial distribution of sesame mixtures that echo warmth and fertility.
Tsungkamnyo
In Nagaland, Sankranti itself doesn’t dominate the calendar, but the same winter period is marked through Tsungkamnyo, particularly in areas like Pungro in Kiphire district.Here, the focus isn’t solar movement or harvest rituals. Tsungkamnyo functions as a cultural fair designed to showcase Naga heritage, crafts, oral traditions, and performance.Open grounds turn into stages for dances, folk songs, and indigenous music. Craft stalls display handwoven textiles, bamboo products, beadwork, and everyday artefacts.Younger generations participate through sports and competitions, while elders preside as custodians of memory and custom.Tsungkamnyo uses the same mid-winter timing as Sankranti elsewhere, but repurposes it as an assertion of identity rather than a ritual of transition.Rich in meaning, rich in food, and rich in culture, mid-January unfolds across India not as a single festival, but as a shared pause in time — where one solar shift gives birth to many ways of belonging.
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