Happy & Safe Uttarayan

India is a land of festivals. People here celebrate all festivals with lots of joy and enthusiasm. This is a land which has cherished festivities with the vision of oneness in life. Each community has retained its own uniqueness and adopted some customs from others. Thus each community has its own traditional festivals. Our festivals begin with the Uttarayan, a festival of kites in the month of January. We celebrate this festival to welcome God Sun in the Capricorn of Zodiac. It is usually celebrated on 14th or 15th January.

In Gujarat state, Uttarayan is a huge festival and an occasion of celebration. In two days of Uttarayan, you will find kids and families on rooftops. Kids and adults like flying kites and the sky is full of kites in Uttarayan. On this occasion Undhiyu, Chikki and Jalebi is prepared and served in large quantity. Uttarayan which is known as Makar Sankranti, is also celebrated in different states of India. In Maharashtra it is celebrated by exchanging Til Gud (Sesame and Jaggery) as token of goodwill.

At GIS learners prepared a video creating awareness, showcasing how important it is to take care of birds flying in the sky and also gave precautionary measures to be taken if in case one comes across injured birds.

Celebrating safe Uttarayan is need of an hour. Though it’s a festival of joy for us, it becomes festival of sorrow sometimes as many people lose their life due to thread. It is also dangerous for birds as well. Lots of birds lose their life or are seriously injured due to thread and kite. We need to think about them also. We need to call ‘Prayas’ or ‘Jivdaya’ trust if you find any injured bird.

We should not forget that we are still fighting with Corona virus, and so following of the Government’s guidelines is must.