Four Wonderful Ways to Celebrate the Sun's Entry into Capricorn

It's time to honor the return of the light!

It's time to celebrate the Sun! In my home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we’ve been experiencing chilly, wintry weather during the past few months. On Sunday night, a blizzard came over the mountains and blanketed the ground in thin, white snow. The temperatures have been cold for weeks, and the Earth has been quiet and still.

My Neighborhood in Santa Fe - January 8, 2024

Although I love the gentle beauty of winter, I am looking forward to the inevitable coming of spring. Where I live, the days are slowly growing longer even though the beginning of spring is still a few months away. If you're also looking forward to the end of short days and cold nights, you'll be pleased to hear that the Sun will be waking up soon!

The Sun is going to enter sidereal Capricorn on January 14-15. In some areas of the northern hemisphere, the Sun's entry into this sign marks the first day of early spring. This date is celebrated as the Vedic festival of Makar Sankranti (or simply Sankranti). This is a spiritual, cultural, and astrological celebration that honors the awakening Sun god (Surya) and the beginning of a new cycle of warmer and longer days.

Makar Sankranti, also known as Pongol, will occur on January 14 in the Western Hemisphere, and on January 15 in the Eastern Hemisphere. Makar Sankranti is observed as an important harvest festival and new year holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and throughout the Hindu diaspora. These festivities go on for several days, during which time celebrants fast, feast, enjoy family reunions, and participate in religious rituals, including dipping into holy rivers and performing pujas for karmic purification.

Devotees Dipping In the River Ganga [Ganges] On the Occasion Of Makar Sankranti

Fortunately, you don't have to attend an organized festival to celebrate Makar Sankranti. There are many simple activities that you can do to honor the Sun's entry into Capricorn. Here below, I describe four of them:

One: Make Sugary Sesame Balls

Til Ke Laddu are sugary sesame balls that are shared and enjoyed in some Hindu traditions. These treats are said to sweeten your speech if you eat them on Makar Sankranti. They sometimes also contain peanuts and coconut, like in this vegan recipe from Dassana’s Veg Recipes.

Til Ke Laddu Photo and Recipe from Dassana’s Veg Recipes

Two: Refresh Your Home

In many cultures, people practice some form of "spring cleaning" as the days become longer and light returns to the world. Similarly, in the Vedic tradition, according to an article about Makar Sankranti by Swami Sivananda, “…old, worn-out and dirty things are discarded and burnt. Homes are cleaned and white-washed. Even the roads are swept clean and lovely designs are drawn with rice-flour.” This is a fantastic time to throw away old items that you no longer need and clean your home! 

Colorful floor artwork (muggulu) decorate entrances and streets during Sankranti, by Bhaskaranaidu

Three: Spend Time in Nature

Many traditions believe it is important to be outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine on Makar Sankranti.

Makar Sankranti honors the life force as it begins to rise up and herald an expansive new direction. This is why we pay homage to the Sun God Surya and to Mother Earth at this time. Spend time out in nature under the Sun on this day if you can, when the solar rays are said to impart a rare healing energy for body and mind.

Four: Let Go of the Past

One of the best ways to celebrate the deeper meaning of Makar Sankranti is to let go of the past and practice forgiveness.

The Sun is Surya, the light. Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, is Shani, a shadow born of the Sun. Though they can have pretty severe differences according to Vedic mythology and astrology, they come together in harmony on Makar Sankranti, and that itself is something to celebrate!

In other words, the Sun’s entry into Capricorn symbolizes the possibility for illumination of our shadow side as we merge into more light. This entails the act of forgiveness. We should let go of the pettiness and old stories of the past while reaching toward a more spiritual awareness.

The following passage from Hindu Fasts and Festivals by Swami Sivananda captures the spiritual essence of Makar Sankranti and the merging of the Sun with Saturn:

The Sun, symbolizing wisdom, divine knowledge and spiritual light, which receded from you when you reveled in the darkness of ignorance, delusion and sensuality, now joyously…moves towards you to shed its light and warmth in greater abundance, and to infuse into you more life and energy. The Sun itself symbolizes all that the Pongal festival stands for.

The message of the Sun is the message of light, the message of unity, of impartiality, of true selflessness, of the perfection of the elements of Karma Yoga. The Sun shines on all equally [which is the essence of Sun in Capricorn]. It is the true benefactor of all beings…He who dwells in the Sun, whom the Sun does not know, whose body the Sun is, and by whose power the Sun shines—He is the Supreme Self, the Indweller, the immortal Essence. Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya: May you go higher and higher, to more and more light, and never to darkness.

As we in the northern hemisphere begin to move closer toward early spring, the light is increasing and Mother Nature will soon be waking up in many parts of the world. As the Earth prepares for this annual cycle of renewal, I hope that you are able to embrace a new stage in your own spiritual cycle of rebirth and new beginnings. On Makar Sankranti, I urge you to let go of the past, embrace the new, and celebrate some of the beautiful gifts of nature.

Happy Makar Sankranti to all!

Please note that this and all my other forecasts are based on the sidereal zodiac used in both Vedic and Western sidereal astrology, not the tropical system used by most Western and a small number of Vedic astrologers. All the astrological charts that I work with and share are calculated according to the sidereal zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsa.