As the earth orbits around the sun over the course of one year, it also wobbles about its axis, just like a spinning top. This makes the sunlight fall on different parts of the world at different angles, and changes the seasons. For half the year, the sun seems to travel northwards, and the other half of the year, it travels southwards. When the Northern hemisphere has winter, the Southern hemisphere has summer. In the Northern Hemisphere,December 21 is the day when we are tilted the furthest away from the sun. That is the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. When the sun is travelling southwards, the days become shorter, colder, there is less sunlight and crops don’t grow as well as other times.
Thus, for Indians, the northward journey of the sun is advantageous and eagerly awaited.
According to the Hindu astronomy, on Makar sankranti, the sun enters the Makara rashi(Capricorn).On Makar Sankranti day, 14th January, the sun no longer moves southward and begins its northward journey (Uttarayan). Makar Sankranti marks the end of a long winter with the return of the sun to the Northern Hemisphere and hence the name Uttarayan. After this day the days start becoming longer & warmer, and thus the chill of winter in on decline.It signifies the end of winter and the beginning of spring, when the trees start becoming green again, the flowers bloom and the weather becomes pleasant.
For the sons of the soil, Sankranti represents the beginning of the farming season. With the
end of winter, farmers across the country joyously look forward to the start of sowing, and can begin to plan out their crop growing for the rest of the year. They begin the tilling of the land, and the preparation of their fields for the all important sowing. With agriculture being the life blood of this country, it is no surprise that Sankranti is universally celebrated and welcomed with glee by the farmer community, who pray to the gods on this occasion to bless them with bountiful harvests that year.
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