Page 19 - Balvihar january 2024

Lord Shiva, Bull Nandi and Makara Sankranti

Makara Sankranti is also a harvest festival. The farmers of Bharat on this day offer the freshly
harvested crops to Lord Surya Narayana and only then start to consume or sell it. This is a
way of expressing our gratitude to Surya Dev who blesses Earth with abundant sunlight, which
is vital for crops.

A story accompanies this harvest festival.

Lord Shiva ordered his bull, Nandi to go down to the earth and give a message to his devotees.
The message said, “Have an oil bath every day and eat
only once a month”. But Nandi reversed the message
and said, "Have food daily and take oil bath once a
month.”

Lord Shiva came to know about Nandi’s blunder and
decided to punish him. Thus, he asked Nandi to be
on Earth forever and support the people to grow
more crops to feed themselves every day. This is how
Makara Sankranti came to be celebrated as a harvest
festival.

Let’s set right a mistake.

Most of us believe that Makara Sankranti is the
beginning of Uttara Aayana — the sun’s northern
movement. Uttara means North and Aayana means
movement.

However, this is not so. Uttara Aayana is a day when
the sun touches the southern most point which is the
Tropic of Capricorn and then starts its movement to
the North. This is around December 21st or 22nd.

– Sangeeta Rau

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Balvihar - January 2024