Glossary · concept
Sankranti
Also written solar ingress · Sankramana
A Sankranti is a solar event, not a lunar one: the moment the Sun crosses from one sidereal zodiac sign into the next. There are twelve a year, one per month — the solar skeleton beneath the lunar calendar.
The most celebrated is Makar Sankranti, when the sun enters Makara (Capricorn) and turns north — kept as Pongal, Lohri, and Uttarayana. Each Sankranti marks a shift in the year’s quality: the harvests, the rains, the cold and the heat all turn on one.
Because they track the sun rather than the moon, Sankrantis fall on nearly the same Gregorian date each year — unlike the moon-led festivals, which wander by weeks.
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