Vi­jay Ma­haraj

The Gre­go­ri­an cal­en­dar used world­wide is based on 12 lu­nar months, which is ac­cept­ed in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, fea­tur­ing the 12 months with 28-31 days, a 365-day year. A leap day is added every four years (Feb­ru­ary 29). It was in­tro­duced by Pope Gre­go­ry XI­II in 1582 and it was first adopt­ed by Catholic and Protes­tant coun­tries be­fore be­com­ing glob­al­ly used.

The Hin­du cal­en­dar fo­cus­es on Chaitra. The first day of the month of the cal­en­dar be­gins on Chaitra Navra­tri, March 19, 2026, the fes­ti­val be­ing de­vot­ed to God­dess Dur­ga, whose nine forms are wor­shipped on nine days.

The Win­ter Sol­stice is the short­est day and the longest night of the year. The tilt­ing of the Earth’s ax­is, the days be­gin to get longer; this took place on De­cem­ber 21, 2025. It is the be­gin­ning of longer days and short­er nights; as time goes by, win­ter is re­placed by spring.

Makar Sankran­ti is the cel­e­bra­tion of the sun’s jour­ney from the south­ern to the north­ern hemi­sphere. Makar Sankran­ti 2026 will oc­cur on Jan­u­ary 14, mark­ing the day that the sun en­ters the Zo­di­ac sign, Capri­corn.

Sankran­ti, sig­ni­fy­ing light, al­so gives the mes­sage of in­tel­lec­tu­al il­lu­mi­na­tion. It is the ca­pac­i­ty to dis­crim­i­nate be­tween right and wrong. It is the dis­crim­i­na­tive wis­dom which leads the in­di­vid­ual on the path of evo­lu­tion and hap­pi­ness.

This fes­ti­val is ded­i­cat­ed to the Hin­du re­li­gious de­ity, Surya, the Sun God—em­body­ing light, life and knowl­edge.

Sankran­ti car­ries a vi­tal sig­nif­i­cance for na­tion­al wel­fare. It is the warmth of love and fel­low feel­ing among peo­ple of a coun­try that ul­ti­mate­ly makes them stand up in union, both in ad­ver­si­ty and pros­per­i­ty.

There was a time when hu­man be­ings could on­ly eat what Moth­er Earth of­fered. We soon learned the sci­ence of agri­cul­ture, the art of cul­ti­vat­ing the soil, grow­ing crops and rais­ing live­stock.

Agri­cul­ture is coax­ing Earth to give what you want. This re­sult­ed in in­dus­tri­al­i­sa­tion, trans­form­ing economies of re­gions/na­tions from a fo­cus on agri­cul­ture to a re­liance on man­u­fac­tur­ing and in­dus­tri­al so­ci­ety from an agrar­i­an so­ci­ety. Too fa­mil­iar an oc­cur­rence world­wide, even in the Caribbean, of­ten re­sult in eco­nom­ic gloom.

The Makar Sankran­ti fes­ti­val is al­so known as the har­vest fes­ti­val. This is the time when har­vest­ing is com­plete and there are big cel­e­bra­tions. This is the day we ac­knowl­edge all those who as­sist­ed in mak­ing a pro­duc­tive har­vest.

The farm an­i­mals play a huge role in har­vest­ing, so the fol­low­ing day is for them and is called Mat­tu Pon­gal. The first day is for the earth, the sec­ond is for us and the third is for the an­i­mals and live­stock. If we are not here, they would all be free and hap­py.

Hav­ing har­vest­ed the pre­vi­ous year’s crop, how to cre­ate the next one is be­ing con­scious­ly planned by al­so tak­ing the an­i­mals in­to a con­sul­ta­tive process.

In the re­mote parts of In­dia where small vil­lages still ex­ist, it is mind-bog­gling to see the de­tails in­volved in the forth­com­ing year’s crops. In the vil­lage meet­ings, all as­pects of in­volv­ing crop ro­ta­tion, an­i­mal hus­bandry and im­por­tant­ly, eco­nom­ics, are tak­en in­to con­sid­er­a­tion.

How they eval­u­ate how the an­i­mals in the vil­lage are, what age they are, how strong they are, what kind and weight of load they can car­ry, is a very beau­ti­ful and or­gan­ic process.

Farm­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the In­di­an Di­as­po­ra, at­tach great sig­nif­i­cance to Makar Sankran­ti:

• Farm­ers thank the sun and Earth for a good crop.

• Cul­tur­al uni­ty, dif­fer­ent coun­tries [States in In­dia] col­lab­o­rate in their own unique ways.

• Re­li­gious im­por­tance—a dip in rivers, seas, is be­lieved to cleanse sins.

Tak­ing a dip in rivers and ponds is an im­por­tant prac­tice for the Hin­du on Makar Sankran­ti. The Ganges Riv­er is es­pe­cial­ly aus­pi­cious to bathe; the area where the Ganges meets the sea off Sagar Is­land is West Ben­gal. The rit­u­al bath in Praya­graj, where the Ganges meets the Ya­mu­na and the Mys­ti­cal Saraswati Rivers, is great­ly revered.

The In­di­an Di­as­po­ra world­wide ac­count for more than 35 mil­lion —peo­ple of In­di­an ori­gin, to­geth­er with the world’s most pop­u­lous coun­try. In­dia’s 1.45 bil­lion peo­ple cel­e­brate Makar Sankran­ti in many ex­cit­ing ways:

Makar Sankran­ti is ob­served with so­cial fes­tiv­i­ties. The Magha Mela is men­tioned in the Hin­du epic Ma­hab­hara­ta. Many devo­tees, ob­servers go to sa­cred rivers or lakes and bathe in a cer­e­mo­ny of thanks to the Sun.

Every 12 years, Hin­dus ob­serve Makar Sankran­ti with the Kumb­ha Mela—the largest re­li­gious pil­grim­age in the world.

It is be­lieved that this pe­ri­od is ide­al for start­ing new ven­tures.