India has a plethora of festivals and we all enjoy celebrating this festival to the fullest. It is a part of India's cultural tradition for thousands of years. But have you ever tried to understand the meaning behind these festivals? Could our festivals be indicative of something much deeper than just celebration? In the next few minutes we are going to discuss the meaning of one such festival of India called as the Makarsankranti. Makarsankranti is a unique festival out of all the other festivals of Biharad. The reason for this uniqueness is that it is a festival based on the motion of the sun while all the other Hindu festivals are based on the motion of the moon. The term Makarsankranti is a combination of two words. Makarabh which is the Indian astronomical name for Capricornis and Sankranti which comes from the word Sankraman and it means transition. So Makarsankranti means the transition of sun into Capricornis. That are a total of 12 Sankrantis in a year. Every time the sun enters a new rashi a Sankranti is said to have occurred. So why is the Makarsankranti given so much importance? We all know that the earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit and the earth's equator is tilted to the ecliptic plane by 23.5 degrees. This tilt is the cause for the four types of seasons on planet earth namely winter, spring, summer and autumn. On 21st of December the earth is positioned in space in such a way that it is northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun by 23.5 degrees while the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun by 23.5 degrees. Because of this orientation the northern hemisphere receives lesser amount of heat and sunlight as compared to the southern hemisphere because the sun stays low in the sky in the northern hemisphere. This signifies the start of winter season in the north and the summer season in the south and this position of the earth occurs on 21st of December since all of India lies in the northern hemisphere of the earth. The date of 21st of December marks the beginning of winter season even in India. So how does it explain the importance of Makarsankranti? The reason is in the ancient past the sun's entry into Capricornus occurred on the day of winter solstice and it means that the Makarsankranta used to coincide with the winter solstice. Thus in ancient India the festival of Makarsankranti marked the onset of winter season and hence it was considered to be of vital importance especially for agriculture. Since Makarsankranti signified the start of winter season this was the reason for the traditions like consuming sessay when jaggery products in your meals or wearing black colored clothes starting from this day onwards so that your body could muster enough heat to keep you warm during the winter season. Another important aspect of the Makarsankranti occurring on the day of winter solstice in the past was that on this day the sun was seen in its southernmost position in the sky. From this day onwards the sun begins its journey towards the north which is called Uttarayan in Indian astronomer. Thus Makarsankranti not only marked the beginning of the winter season but also the start of Uttarayan. But today we see that Makarsankranti no longer falls on 21st of December the winter solstice day but its date has now shifted to 14th and sometimes it occurs even on 15th of January. So what might be the reason behind this forward shift in the date of Makarsankranti? Let's try to understand these reasons analytically. If we see the date on which Makarsankranti occurred between 2001 to 2008 we find that Makarsankranti occurred on 15th of January in 2004 and in 2008 but it is celebrated on 14th of January in the rest of the years between 2001 and 2008. So what exactly is happening? The answer to this riddle lies in the time at which the sun enters Capricorn's. If we see the time of the sun's transition into Capricorn's for the years 2001 to 2008 we see that in 2004 the sun entered Capricorn's at 1143 pm that is after the sunset of 14th of January. Same thing happened in 2008 when the sun entered Capricorn's at 1207 am which is again after the sunset of 14th of January and is the Makarsankranti was celebrated on the next day that is on 15th of January. This brings to us an important assertion that if the sun enters Capricorn's after the sunset then the Makarsankranti is celebrated on the next day. But the second reason for this forward shift of the date of Makarsankranti is due to the Gregorian or English calendar system. The Gregorian calendar measures 365 days in a year but the earth takes a tad bit longer than 365 days to complete one revolution. Considering a side area earlier the earth takes 365 days 6 hours and 9 minutes to complete one revolution. This surplus of 6 hours and 9 minutes is not counted in the Gregorian calendar. After 4 years this surplus gets accumulated to 24 hours and 36 minutes which means at the end of the 4 years the Gregorian calendar ends about 24 hours earlier than the actual revolution period of the earth. Fortunately Gregorian calendar has a provision of rectifying this error by the addition of the liberty after every 4 years. So the error of 24 hours no longer persists. But the surplus of 36 minutes is still unaccounted and this surplus of 36 minutes after every 4 years also shifts forward the time of Makarsankranti by 36 minutes every 4 years. To understand it better let's take a look at the graph of the time of Makarsankranti for 2001 to 2008. The forward shift of Sankranti is easily noticeable. So can we calculate the number of years after which Sankranti will be shifted to 15th of January for 3 consecutive years. The 4 year shift pattern of Sankranti's day of 14, 14, 14 and 15 changed to 14, 14, 15, 15 between 2009 to 2012. In this period the sun's entry into Capricornus in 2010 was at 1230pm. Hence for this pattern to change again this entry should move forward till 619pm that is by about 6 hours or 360 minutes. As we learned earlier if Sankranti shifts forward by 36 minutes every 4 years then it will shift forward by 360 minutes after 40 years. So the pattern will change to 14, 15, 15, 15 during 20, 49 to 20, 52. Following the same cycle few decades later Makarsankranti will be permanently shifted to 15th of January and it will keep on shifting forward by 1 day every 40 years. Nonetheless Makarsankranti is still celebrated in India with the same gusto and joy and it is still considered as one of the most important festivals of India. So if you found this video informative then share it with your followers and help us to spread the truth about the ancient Indian culture to as many people as we can. Stay tuned, stay educated and last but not least know your culture by self-investigating about the tree. Subaste Panthana Santo, Joyend, Jai Bharat.