Makar sankranti, haldikumkum, and walking through our small village my social life

Hello, community, friends, and hivers greetings. During our stay in India, we are busy every day with many things. but still connected with the local community and enjoying our social participation with locals.
It was Makarsankranti on 15 January, dedicated to the Hindu God Surya/Sun. The day the Sun starts moving to the north known as Uttarayana, when the sun enters the 10th house of the zodiac** Makara** and all over India, there are different ways of celebrating according to local culture and tradition.
Of course, festive food making is normal everywhere. Here in Our small village of Maharastra special day for Ladies. They gather together Afternoon walk to each other's houses and offer Haldi-Kumkum.Haldi/Turmeric and Kunkum the red powder made from lime and Turmeric which looks bright red. (before it was made with some dried wild berries but not anymore.) These are very important for a Hindu married lady to put on her forehead. some sweet from sesame seeds, flowers, and one simple gift. I prepare myself to distribute the following things, which everybody will offer.

Sesame jaggery balls. They are very important on this day to give each other a symbolic way to distribute kindness and love to everybody. Special winter food to keep the body warm and active. Full of calcium and iron, I make them at home.

Tilgul the sesame seeds coated with sugar syrup. meaning to give it take sweet and be sweet I buy it in the shop. We don't use much sugar but it is tradition.

Flowers.

Many different things to give as a gift I do give some food items they can use in the kitchen many do soaps, spoons, cups, talcum powder, or sugar according to their capacity or how they afford things.
This time I distribute jaggery for them.
Before Ladies come I have to get ready for the ritual.
![20240115_114057.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/hind

I was waiting for them and I got a phone call from a neighbor, we should walk first from the other houses, and towards the end the other ladies would come to our neighborhood. I was in a hurry but suddenly got a strain in my ankle and I had to ask my husband to drive me other end of the street which is almost 2 kilometers to walk.
He dropped me and here I joined the other ladies. We started walking from house to house together. It is evening and a very nice walk even though I had pain in my leg.

After I joined them we started to visit house to house.

Mostly Hindu fisher community lives around here.

Different types of houses and interiors.

Somebody arranged chairs for sitting somebody put mats on the floor. even the cat also welcoming us.

walking through the rough roads with nice beautiful sarees talking, laughing the walk was very easy. For me little hard to walk in a saree, I didn't use it often, plus pain in my leg so I was very slow.

we were together around 32 ladies(after a little walk some ladies gave up) and walking on small roads and paths. To easily walk, we split into smaller groups. Each lady carries one bag and collects the gifts from the others' houses.

We walked and visited 30 houses.

After all the houses, finally, they came to our house. They were around 28 when they reached our area. Our house was second last. The last neighbor's house to visit was 200 meters from our house, it was almost dark they were in a hurry so I got help from two young girls to do the haldi-kumkum ritual faster.

Everybody was happy and enjoyed the day of Makar Sankranti.
Good to connect and communicate with them, hear them, share with them, and be social with them once in year. I like it.

That was a nice walk with village ladies. I enjoyed that social walk with them even though I had pain in my leg at night.
Thank you very much. Be sweet happy and kind to each other The message of Makarsankranti.