Harvest · Mid-January
Also known as Sankranti · Uttarayan · Maghi · Khichdi
When it’s celebrated
The exact date shifts each year — it’s fixed from the panchang. Cast your free kundli or check the calendar for this year’s muhurat.
Significance
Makar Sankranti is a solar harvest festival celebrating the Sun's transit into Capricorn and the beginning of Uttarayana, the auspicious northward course of the Sun. It marks the end of the winter solstice period and longer days ahead, and is observed with gratitude for the harvest, holy bathing, charity and worship of Surya, the Sun god.
The story
Makar Sankranti is tied to the Sun god Surya entering the house of his son Shani (Saturn), who rules Capricorn — symbolising the mending of the father-son relationship and the triumph of harmony. The period of Uttarayana is also deemed especially sacred: in the Mahabharata, the patriarch Bhishma, who could choose the hour of his death, waited on his bed of arrows for Uttarayana to begin before leaving his body, believing it the gateway to liberation.
Rituals
Across India
Makar Sankranti is celebrated under many names across India: Uttarayan in Gujarat (famed for kite-flying), Maghi and Lohri (the eve) in Punjab, Khichdi in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Magh Bihu in Assam, Poush Sankranti in Bengal, and Pongal in Tamil Nadu (as the solar harvest festival). Despite the different names, all honour the Sun and the harvest around the same mid-January window.
Questions
Makar Sankranti celebrates the Sun's transit into Capricorn (Makara) and the start of Uttarayana, the Sun's northward journey. It is a harvest festival of gratitude and the end of the coldest part of winter, observed with worship of Surya.
Surya, the Sun god, is the presiding deity, honoured with prayers, offerings of water (arghya) and holy bathing.
Makar Sankranti falls when the Sun enters Capricorn, in mid-January every year. Unlike most Hindu festivals it follows the solar calendar, so its Gregorian date stays nearly constant rather than shifting widely.
People take holy dips in sacred rivers, offer prayers to the Sun, prepare sesame and jaggery sweets, fly kites, give charity, and gather around bonfires. Celebrations vary by region under names like Uttarayan, Maghi and Pongal.
Uttarayana is the six-month period when the Sun travels northward, beginning at Makar Sankranti. It is considered highly auspicious in Hindu tradition, associated with light, growth and spiritual progress.
Book a pooja in your name, find the muhurat, or read the day’s panchang — bring the festival into your own practice.
