Sankranthi celebrations, A dull snowy day and a lot of books #MondayMusings

I hope you have celebrated the festival Sankranthi with family. Indian festivals are the happiest times to meet friends, cook and eat great food, spend more time with family and carry on the old traditions.

 I have celebrated Sankranthi well by meeting some Indian friends and by eating and cooking good food. I miss India as I want to put a colorful rangoli with a lot of flowers and colors which I cannot do here as we are staying in a rented home, but I convinced myself by putting a small rangoli with chalk on our wooden floor. 

Traditional rangoli for Sankranthi

Traditional sweet 'Arisalu' for Sankranthi

Bhogipallu (Regupallu)/ Jujube fruits

We did a simple Pooja at home and I prepared Payasam (Indian sweet with milk and semiya) and Pulihora( A rice dish). We celebrated the tradition of putting 'Bhogipallu' for children on Bhogi, the first day of the festival. We usually put jujube fruits (Regu pallu) on kids' head along with pennies and flower petals on Bhogi evening. This is to avoid any ill effects(Buri Nazar) the kids might have. We do this to kids from the first year till they reach 5 years of their age. 

Many people display God's idols and traditional wooden toys as 'Bommala Koluvu' which is very good to see during this Sankranthi. We missed some important Indian food like 'Arisalu' but I don't even dare to attempt cooking them as you know, regular cooking itself is a big headache for me.

Kite flying tradition on Sankranthi

Fortunately, kids got a chance to fly kites.  They enjoyed the beautiful time with other kids.

So, that's how we celebrated the important festival in our Telugu household. 

Today, it is the third day of the festival 'Kanuma' and people having cows, decorate them and perform puja. 

Here, it is a snowy day and I am all huddled up at home watching Netflix, blogging, and reading books. Seems like a lazy day. The weather is very cool but the mountains near my home look great from our window with snow and fog. 

Sorry for this long post, but I want to share my current reading list as well. I have got a lot of variety this month, won't you agree? Looking forward to reading more books in January :-)

No Ordinary Girl by Cheryl Elaine #Crime #thriller
The mask beneath her face by Rafael Chandler #horror
It happens by Karan Sharma #RomanticComedy

The Adventures of Popcorn and Jelly bean by Robert Gillespe #Children'sbook

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins #thriller

How did you celebrate Sankranthi? If you don't celebrate, How was your new year celebrations? I would love to know. Have a Happy January. 

Until next time,

Linking this to #MondayMusings hosted by Corinne.

Also, Linking this to #ChattyBlogs hosted by Shanaya Tales.

Explaining Sankranthi to Kids

Sankranthi is an important festival in Telugu household. It is celebrated for 3 days - Bhogi, Sankranthi and Kanuma. 

How to explain the importance of this festival to our kids in this city lifestyle? It's a bit difficult as very few traditions are being followed now. 

Here are a few things about Sankranthi to explain kids in a simple way:

1. Sankranthi is the time when the Sun moves from the southern hemisphere to Northern Hemisphere (transition of Sun from Sagittarius to Capricorn Zodiac sign). This means The Sun becomes closer to us in India and weather becomes warmer slowly. This is also called as 'Makara' sankranthi because of the transition of Sun to zodiac sign Capricorn (Makara raashi).

2. This is basically a harvest festival as farmers celebrate the beginning of Harvest season

3. In villages, there is a tradition of 'Haridasu' coming to every home singing the prayers of Lord Vishnu. We offer rice and money to them.Other traditions include dancing of Gangireddu (decorated bulls make feats before every home as per the clarinet music of owner) and young women placing 'Gobbemmalu' (prepared from Cow dung and decorated with flowers) on rangolis and dancing around it singing songs.

4. On the first day 'Bhogi', People light bonfire with wood and burn old things indicating the new beginning. In the evening, families with infants or children below 3 years old will arrange a small function and shower 'regupallu' (jujube fruits) on their head. This will reduce evil eye on kids. Some families arrange 'Bommala koluvu' on this day, which means arranging idols and toys in an organized way.

5. On the second day, which is Makara Sankranthi, People wear new clothes, do pooja and make offerings to ancestors of the family who died.  

6. The third day is known as Kanuma, when farmers pray and honor the cattle.

7. Sankranthi is special for rangolis made with combining many dots in an organized manner. Women prepare rangolis everyday for this whole month and on the last day of the festival they draw a chariot.

8. Elders and children enjoy flying kites and some people in coastal areas organize cockfights. 

9. Mukkanuma is the fourth day of the festival when non-vegetarians cook and eat meat, fish etc., Usually, people don't eat non-veg for the first three days of the festival.

10. Traditional foods prepared for the festival are arisalu (jaggery sweet with rice flour), appalu, janthikalu (hot snack prepared with rice flour and besan) and garelu (prepared with black gram).

So, here is the information about the celebration of Sankranthi in 'Andhra style'. I hope this information will be helpful to teach your kids about Sankranthi :-)

I wish you all a very Happy Sankranthi.

Until next time,

Image courtesy: Google images labelled for non-commercial reuse.

Happy Sankranthi/ Pongal - Post in telugu

సంక్రాంతి తెలుగు వాళ్ళ పెద్ద పండుగ. ఈ సంవత్సరం మొదటి బ్లాగ్ పోస్ట్ తెలుగులో రాయడం ఆనందంగా ఉంది.

సంక్రాంతి అంటే భోగి పళ్ళు , భోగి మంటలు, హరిదాసు కీర్తనలు, గంగిరెద్దు నాట్యాలు, చుక్కల ముగ్గులు, పిండివంటలు, కొత్త అల్లుళ్ళు , అంతా సందడే మరి :)

సూర్యుడు మకర రాశి లో ప్రవేశించే  సందర్భంగా జరుపుకునే ఈ పండుగ మీ అందరికీ మంచి ఆరోగ్యం, సిరి సంపదలు తీసుకురావాలని కోరుకుంటూ..

సంక్రాంతి శుభాకాంక్షలు :)

ఇట్లు,
మహతీ రమ్య 

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