The Story of Sankranthi ,part 1

Hello friends!!! If I have to describe India in single sentence i prfer “Nation of Festivals”  .We have many festivals and The best part is each festival is  celebrated in a unique way . Sankranthi is the festival of ‘ kites and colors’ . It is the festival of celebrating a successful ‘crop year . It is an important festival for farmer families of Andhra Pradesh where Agriculture is the main mean of living (even today) .It is celebrated at a time when they complete one crop year and ready to welcome ‘Dhanya

Lakshmi ‘ ( Goddess of grain or crop ) ;it is also a festival of showing gratitude to all those people and animals who helped in bringing the crop home. The main festival is for 3 days 1.Bhogi 2.Sankranthi 3.Kanumu.

Celebrations start few days before the main festival when women start making a huge collection of viands ( which are expected to last for few months ,so you can imagine the quantities ) .

At the time of festival the viands , new clothes and grain are distributed among the workers . Earlier when money was not that famous ,workers used to get grain that would last for a year.

The festival is also celebrated as a worship of God Indra for making the weather beneficial for crop.

 

Muggulu

You can call it Rangoli if you want ,but it is just a rough translation.There is no proper English word for it.It is the most important part of festival .They use a specially made ‘ Muggu Pindi ‘ ( type of flour ) . Muggu is both science and art .All the traditional  designs have unique number of dots and their arrangement ,if you miss a single dot ,that’s the end of it .

In villages they are decorated with mary gold Flowers and cones of cattle dung  ,called Gobbemma.

The logic behind Muggu is that the flour used for it is considered as insect and pest repellent .When farmers bring their year long hard wok as the grain and store it in specially built storage rooms at home ( Called ‘Gade’ ) , the wives decorate the surroundings with ‘muggu’ to protect the crop from uninvited guests like insects. They are filled with colors which symbolize prosperity .Even today many people believe that Goddess Lakshmi would like to come to those houses which are richly decorated with Muggulu.

Image credits to my friends Kavitha,Manasa,Kalyani

 

Gobbemmalu ,Gobbilla patalu

Like there is no proper English word for Muggu ,there is no proper English word for Gobbemma .There cones and pyramids made of cattle dung .They are used to decorate the designs. Girls  clap and dance aroundnthem singing songs. The main content of songs is praying Goddess Lakshmi for a good husband . (Whatever a girl does before a marriage is to get a best husband  and after marriage is for longevity of the husband while guys do not need anything like this. ) As much as i hate the idea of praying for

a husband ,i love the rhythm and rhyming of the songs . If you want to hear them ,click here ..

    Credit

Credit.

I actually wanted to write just one post ,but i realized that there so much to tell and I will not be able to complete it in single post ,so there will be another post coming.

Read the second part here

 

I hope you like these pictures….

you might want to read about other festivals….

Bathukamma : a history , a heritage , a childhood

Karthika pournami :Dazzling home town

5 days of TELUGU WEDDING : Day 1,part2

5 days of TELUGU WEDDING : Day 1,part1