Bharat is a land of fairs and festivals. Along with the diversified people one also find diversity in festivals. Maha bisuba Sankranti is regarded as the beginning of the festival. Mahabisuba Sankranti also known as pana Sankranti is the traditional new year day festival of Hindus. During this time period perhaps every parts of India celebrate their new year like Gudi padwa,vaishaki,bihu,ugadi,pana Sankranti etc. The Odias particularly celebrated pana Sankranti as their new year.
But unfortunately we celebrate new year according to the Gregorian calender due to the long colonial legacy which impacted our society still today. If we celebrate new year once then why we celebrate it again in the same year. Today we called ourselves as civilised without any knowledge of our civilization. The reason behind why we celebrate mahabisuba Sankranti as the beginning of a new year is fully scientific and logically correct.
Let's go deeper to understand it properly.
According to the Vedic Astrology, zodic signs are called Rashis,which are cluster of stars or Nakshatras. Each Rashi is associated with elements,genders, modalities,and planetary rulers. There are twelve zodiac signs in total. These are,
Aries - Mesha
Taurus-Brisha
Gemini- Mithuna
Cancer- karkata
Leo-simha
Virgo-kanya
Libra-Tula
Scorpio- vrischika
Sagittarius -dhanus
Capricorn - makara
Aquarius -kumbha
Pisces - Meena
Q. Why only twelve zodiac signs?
Since time immemorial, the Sun and it's related planets has been functioning in a particular way and will function till the end of time. Jyotish deals with all these movements of celestial bodies and their effects on each other. People particularly in India mistaken jyotish as a subject of fool. They have a misconception in their mind that an astrologer can be able to tell their future. But certainly this is not possible by anyone. Astrologers can only predict the future on the basis of the movement of planetary objects.
We know that all these celestial bodies revolve in their own orbits and rotates with respect to their own axis. All these planets revolve around the Sun but not in a same speed. These have their own relative speed and also these are not parallel to each other. These are not homogeneous and have different body mass . These are not symmetrically aligned. So according to the principle of gravitation and attraction, the gravitational effect of each planet affect others. For example, the high rise of tides in the new moon day and full moon day, many flowers blossom during the night due to the effect of moon etc.
Now come to the zodiac sign.
Vedic astrologers were divided stars which are present around the Sun in a longitudinal way into different groups and named those as Zodiac or Rashi. According to their shape these are Mesha, Vrisha,Mithuna,Karkata,Simha,Kanya,Tula,Vrischika,Dhanus,Makara,Kumbha,Meena.
To make a complete revolution (reach at the same point where one start) an object has to travel 360 degree. When 360 degree divided by 30 degree the result will 12 . That means 30degree of 12 equal parts. 30 degree means the longitudinal place that starts from 0 degree and ends at 30 degree and again from 0 degree to 30 degree and so on. There are numerous stars present between this longitudinal place i.e from0-30 degree. Vedic astrologers made a shape using these stars and gave a name . By this we found there are total 12 zodic signs which are completely surrounding the sun. Suppose a person's has a zodic sign Pisces i.e the Sun was in the pises when that person was born .
So the transition of the sun to the Aries(mesha),and the beginning of summer season are interrelated and from this we entered into a new beginning and the cycle goes on .
This is the primitive Indian knowledge system. They had not advanced scientific equipments or instruments but they had their scientific advanced knowledge by their deep observation. To ease the process for the commons,they injected this concept in the mind very cleverly by the help of religion and in the name of fairs and festivals.
In odisha, people celebrated this day as pana Sankranti. The day is named after pana the main drink prepared on this occasion having not only religious but also bears significant benefits.
On this day , people prepared a drink called pana . This unique drink prepared by pulp of bela (wood apple), jaggery, lia/khai,fruits,Chenna which contains medicinal properties. All these ingredients are full of iron and pottasium,fibre which actually boosts the iron percentage in body and smoothen the digestive system. As in summer, the food we intake digest fast , so Chhatua is also taken on this day which is a rich source of protein and digest slowly. Also water retaintion capacity of Chattua is high. People offer these food and drink among themselves which enhances the social harmony and promotes equality amongst themselves.
Fairs like Danda nanchha, Chadak jatra etc are celebrated in different parts of odisha which integrates various sections of people. This promotes cultural heritage of the state.
Pana sankranti/Mesha sankranti/mahabisuba sankranti/Chhatua sankranti etc are name used by people which shows the linguistic intelligence of the masses.
All these aforesaid explanation show the rich tradition of our ancient civilization which is not just so called religious but also scientific in nature.
Now the time has come when we must celebrate our own system of celebration in our indigenous way .
Wish you all a Happy New year.
Har har Mahadev
Jay sitaram.
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