15 January 2098
- Tithi
- Shukla Trayodashi · until 10:21 PM
- Nakshatra
- Mrigashira
- Sunrise – Sunset
- 7:05 AM – 5:50 PM
- Abhijit Muhurta
- 12:06 PM – 12:49 PM
Festival · 2098
Makar Sankranti 2098
Falls on 15 January 2098 in Dubai, as computed from the real sky for that city.
The portal of Festivals
Today's three riddles
Turn a card. Answer all three rightly and this portal is sealed in your sky. New riddles every morning.
Wishing you a blessed Makar Sankranti
As the Sun turns north, may your year turn toward warmth, light and longer days of good work.
पूषन्नेकर्षे यम सूर्य प्राजापत्य व्यूह रश्मीन्समूह तेजो यत्ते रूपं कल्याणतमं तत्ते पश्यामि योऽसावसौ पुरुषः सोऽहमस्मि ॥
pūṣannekarṣe yama sūrya prājāpatya vyūha raśmīnsamūha tejo yatte rūpaṁ kalyāṇatamaṁ tatte paśyāmi yo'sāvasau puruṣaḥ so'hamasmi
Its meaning
O Pūṣan, sole ṛṣi, Yama, Sūrya, son of Prajāpati, spread apart your rays, gather in your radiance. That form of yours which is most blessed, that of yours I see. The Person who is there, yonder, I am he.
Īśa Upaniṣad 16
When, for Dubai
15 January 2098
Shukla Trayodashi · until 10:21 PM
Do
Give away something warm to someone who is cold, today: a blanket, a shawl, a coat you no longer wear.
Leave aside
Kite strings coated in glass. They cut birds and people.
Send this as your wish
Add your name. The card goes as a picture they can read and keep, and the link with it opens as your wish, with the timing for their own city, the verse, and how to keep the day.
Wishing you a blessed Makar Sankranti
Keep the festival year in your calendar
Every festival on its right day for Dubai, inside your phone's own calendar, each one opening its page here. It renews itself every year. No account needed.
For Outlook or any other calendar, add the copied link as a calendar from the internet. For another city, open this page for that city first.
Never miss a festival
A gentle reminder three days before each festival and on its morning, with its timing for your city.
In 26,025 days
The sky that day
- The Moon
- Shukla Trayodashi
- The Sun is in
- Makara
- The Moon is in
- Vrishabha, in Mrigashira
The Sun enters Makara, and the tradition counts from here uttarayana, the Sun's northern course; it is fixed to the Sun, not the Moon, which is why it keeps nearly the same place in the calendar each year.
What the day is
The Sun turns north. Of every festival in the year this is the one fixed to the sky itself rather than to the moon, which is why it lands on nearly the same date each January while everything else moves. The cold has not broken yet — the turn is announced before it is felt.
The story
3 stories the day keeps. Turn each card.
1 / 3Bhishma waits for the turnTurn ↻
Wounded on the field of Kurukshetra and lying on a bed of arrows, Bhishma could choose the hour of his death, and he chose to wait for the Sun's northern course. Through those days he taught Yudhishthira what a king owes his people, and only when the Sun turned did he let go.
Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva, Shanti Parva and Anushasana Parva.
2 / 3The path of lightTurn ↻
In the Gita, Krishna speaks of two paths for those who leave the body: one of fire, light, day, the bright fortnight and the six months of the Sun's northern course, and one of smoke and night. The northern half of the year became the tradition's picture of the path toward light.
Bhagavad Gita 8.24 to 8.26.
3 / 3Ganga reaches the seaTurn ↻
Bhagiratha's long tapas brought Ganga down from heaven, and he led her across the land to the place where his ancestors lay as ash, near Kapila's hermitage by the sea. The tradition tells that she reached the sea on this day, and Ganga Sagar is where pilgrims bathe for it.
The descent: Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda. The day: the living tradition.
The days around it
3 days kept as one season. Each has its own page.
- Day 1
Lohri
The bonfire on the last night of the cold; sesame, jaggery and songs.
- Makar Sankranti
The Sun turns north; til and gur, given to the cold.
You are here - Day 3
Mattu Pongal
The cattle are washed, garlanded and thanked for the harvest.
What is said, and what is so
Often said
Makar Sankranti is the winter solstice.
The root
The solstice, the shortest day, comes about three weeks earlier. When the reckoning was set the two days stood close together; the earth's axis has slowly drifted since, and the festival kept to the Sun's entry into Makara.
Often said
A kite needs string coated in glass to fly well.
The root
No text asks for kites at all; they are the joy of an open sky. Plain cotton thread flies just as high and keeps the birds and the riders below safe.
How to keep Makar Sankranti
Free acts, done by you. Kept so far this year: 0 of 3.
Give away something warm to someone who is cold, today: a blanket, a shawl, a coat you no longer wear.
Take til and gur to a neighbour, a guard or a worker, and say one kind word with it.
Greet the rising Sun with a round of surya namaskar, facing east, as the light returns.
Each act is free and done by you. Keeping one writes it to your karma ledger with the day's panchang. Nothing here is ever bought, and no act is a remedy.
The family's part
The youngest
Hands til and gur to each elder with the Marathi words of the day: take the sweet, and speak sweetly.
The eldest
Tells how Bhishma waited for the Sun to turn, and what he taught while he waited.
Everyone
Eat the first khichdi or pongal of the season together, each naming one thing to leave in the cold half of the year.
How India keeps it
Tamil Nadu
Pongal: new rice and milk boiled in a new pot until it overflows, and the cry of Pongalo Pongal; the next day, Mattu Pongal, honours the cattle.
Punjab
Lohri, the night before: a bonfire, sesame, jaggery, peanuts and rewri thrown into the flames, and the songs of Dulla Bhatti.
Assam
Magh Bihu: a night of community feasting, Uruka, and in the morning the meji fire is lit and the harvest is shared.
Gujarat
Uttarayan: whole cities on their rooftops flying kites from dawn, with undhiyu and chikki.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
Khichdi: a bath in the Ganga or at the Sangam, khichdi cooked and given, and in Bihar, dahi and chura.
The day, for Dubai
The day is chosen by the moment the tradition reads its tithi at, and the times are that day's own, computed for this city. A festival-specific puja window is not printed: those rules differ by tradition and await a scholar's review.
For another city
The stories, their sources and the regional customs on this page await a scholar's review. The sky and the dates are computed for your city.