PARV 27 OF 30 · MAGH
मकर संक्रांति · तिला सकरात
14 January, when the sun enters Makar
"दही-चूड़ा, तिलकुट, और माघ के धूप"
Katha · The story
On this day the sun turns north and the days begin to lengthen: Uttarayan. Bhishma, lying on his bed of arrows, waited for this day to die, because a death in Uttarayan goes straight to heaven. The elders say it is the day the gods wake after their six-month night. In Bihar it is named for its food, til, the sesame that keeps the body warm in the Magh fog: tilkut, tilwa, lai, and the gur that binds them.
The village day is dahi-chura: the new rice beaten into chura, eaten with fresh curd and gur before anything else is touched, then tilkut, then the kites go up over the wheat fields and stay up until the evening khichdi.
Mahatva · Significance
It is the farmer's winter festival, the turn of the sun, and the end of the fog's worst. In Mithila it is Tila Sakrat; in the rest of Bihar Khichdi, after the evening meal. The daan of til and khichdi to the poor is the day's duty.
"तिल के लड्डू, गुड़ के मिठास, माघ के पहिल दिन"
A line everyone at the festival knows
Vidhi · How it is done in Malinagar
Dahi-chura, tilkut, lai, tilwa, and the evening khichdi with aloo-baingan chokha.
The tilkut of Gaya is famous, but the tilkut of Pusa chowk is what a Malinagar child remembers.