Unity in Diversity, or 'Many in the One'
Festivals galore
Learn about the many festivals of India.
India has an enormous variety of festivals. You may have noticed that a few common ones are celebrated across India at almost the same time, though they have different names.
Take just one example: Makara Sankrānti, which marks the beginning of the harvest season in many parts of India, on or around 14 January.
The book puts its names on a map of India, and the list is long: Makara Sankranti, Pongal, Makara Sankramana, Makara Vilakku, Makar Sankraat, Makar Sankranti, Khichdi Parv, Uttarayan, Maghi or Lohri, Shishur Saenkraat, Magh Bihu, Pedda Panduga, Poush Songkranti.
Look at the list carefully. Some names are clearly cousins: Sankranti, Sankramana, Sankraat, Songkranti. Others, like Pongal, Lohri, Magh Bihu and Pedda Panduga, sound nothing alike. Yet they all fall on or around the same date and mark the same thing: the start of the harvest.
Why the same date? Because a harvest does not follow a language. It follows the sun, and the sun is the same over Assam, Punjab, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. So here is the pattern again: the dishes shared their ingredients, the saris their uncut cloth, and the festivals share their moment and their meaning.
The book turns it back to you: What is your favourite festival, and how is it celebrated in your region? Is it celebrated anywhere else in India, perhaps under another name? And: many major festivals take place in October–November. Make a list of a few main ones and their different names in different parts of the country.
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