- Month
- January (around 14 January)
- Duration
- Four days in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
- Also called
- Suggi Habba (Karnataka), Sankranti
- Key foods
- Ellu bella, ariselu, chakinalu
When it happens
The festival falls around 14 January each year and signals the end of winter, the start of the sun's northward journey (Uttarayana) and gradually longer days. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana it is a four-day affair; in Karnataka the main celebrations fall on the Sankranti day itself.
How Karnataka celebrates
In Karnataka the festival is also called Suggi Habba, the harvest festival. Homes are cleaned in advance, doorways are decorated with rangoli, mango leaves and sugarcane, and newly harvested rice, sesame and vegetables are offered in prayer.
The signature custom is ellu bella, a mix of sesame, jaggery, roasted groundnuts, dry coconut and sugar candy that families exchange with the words "ellu bella thindu olle maathadi", roughly "eat sesame and jaggery, and speak kindly". Married women visit one another with gifts, and kites fill the sky.
How Andhra Pradesh and Telangana celebrate
Here the festival stretches over four distinct days.
Haridasus, singers devoted to Vishnu, go from door to door during the season, and decorated bulls (Gangireddu) are led through the lanes. Kite flying and bull races add to the fun in villages.
- Bhogi: early-morning bonfires burn old household items, and children are blessed with regi (jujube) fruit
- Sankranti: rangoli (muggulu) of rice flour outside every home, new clothes, and sweets such as ariselu and chakinalu
- Kanuma: a day for farmers and cattle, which are washed and decorated
- Mukkanuma: prayers to village deities and, in many homes, a non-vegetarian feast
Where to see it
Villages in coastal Andhra, especially around the Godavari districts, see the biggest celebrations, and many city families travel home for the holiday. In Bengaluru and Mysuru, markets fill with sugarcane and ellu bella packs in the days before. The same festival is Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Lohri and Maghi in the north and Uttarayan in Gujarat.
Where to experience it
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