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Makar Sankranti also known as Maghi, is a Hindu festival, which is celebrated across India in different cultural forms, with great devotion and fervour. The festival, which marks the start of longer days, is usually celebrated in the second week of January.
Observed in the month of January every year, Makar Sankranti is being celebrated today.
The festival assumes importance because it is on the day of Makar Sankranti that the Sun's journey towards north (the Uttarayan) begins, as it enters the sign of Makar (the Capricorn).
Every year on Makar Sankranti, thousands of pilgrims gather at Ganga Sagar and Prayag to take a holy dip, seeking absolution. The devotees also offer prayers to Surya Bhagwaan (Sun God).
Makar Sankranti will be celebrated on 14 January this year.
On this day, devotees light lamps with sesame oil, which they consider auspicious in many ways, including that “it drives away sins”.
Melas (fairs) are also organised at several places across the country, where people enjoy swing rides and candies alike.
Kite enthusiasts also take part in celebrations, and the sky is filled with kites of different colours.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recently said that it is the endeavour of the government that the Kumbh turns out to be darshaniye (worth seeing), adbhut (amazing), divya (divine) and bhavya (grand).
“Kumbh will prove to be a confluence of our age-old traditions and culture with modernity and technology. It will be a New India and New Kumbh,” Adityanath had said.
In order to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the Gangasagar Mela, the state power department has taken up several measures to increase the capacity of the substation at Rudranagar in South 24 Parganas district.
“The power department had nearly doubled the power supply from 8.9 million units per day to 16 million units per day, during the Gangasagar Mela last year,” the official added.
An additional 800 KW of power would be generated by the State Electricity Board at the mela ground, along with 150 KW power at Chemaguri and 170 KW power at Kachuberia, the official said.
Union Minister Uma Bharti on 4 December 2018 announced that she would set out on a 2,500-km yatra (pilgrimage) along the Ganga River on foot from Makar Sankranti this year.
"I will not do anything for the next one-and-a-half years except (working) for the Ganga and Lord Rama," she said.
(With inputs from PTI and pongalfestival.org)
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Published: 02 Jan 2019,04:48 PM IST