Vijayawada: On Thursday, the Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana threw a lavish celebration of “Makar Sankranti,” the vibrant harvest festival. On Thursday, the second day of the three-day celebration, the countryside in both states looked joyful with decorated homes, kite flying, cockfights, bull fights, and other activities. Sankranti, the largest celebration, brought both states’ villages to life. Men, women, and children in their finest dress offered prayers at temples to start the day. Mango leaves and marigold flowers were used to adorn the homes. Rangoli was used by women to decorate their front yards. They created “Gobbemma,” or balls made of cow excrement, and arranged them amid the Rangoli designs along with some of the recently harvested rice, sugarcane, and turmeric. The women created “chakkara pongal,” also known as rice kheer, a unique meal consisting of milk, jaggery, and fresh rice. Allowing the dish to boil over represents plenty. The distinctively dressed alm-seekers with elaborately decorated oxen, known as “Haridasus” and “Basvannas,” traveled through villages in search of alms. Because they contributed to the harvest, the farmers adored and decorated their bullocks. It was time for the families to gather in their hometowns and villages for a vacation. For the celebration, people from all throughout the nation and even overseas joined their loved ones. The city highways were mostly empty as thousands of Hyderabad residents departed for their homes in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the festivities.
To ease the festival rush, authorities have run hundreds of special buses and special trains from Hyderabad to different locations in the two states during the past few days. It is a chance for children of people living in cities and overseas to experience rural life. They play a variety of country sports and go to the fields. The sky was filled with vibrant kites in Hyderabad and other places in both states. While children flew kites from rooftops, popular Hindi and Telugu chartbusters blasted from speakers. Despite court rulings prohibiting them, cockfights were held in multiple locations across the two states for the second day in a row. Punters wagered crores of rupees on roosters in numerous locations throughout coastal Andhra Pradesh, where these were publicly organized on a massive scale. In other locations, legislators and other politicians started the cockfights. They asserted that the cock battles are an integral part of Telugu culture and that Sankranti would not be complete without them. Police claimed they were taking action against people who were betting or engaging in other illicit activities, as well as those who were tying blades to roosters for the battle. In his hometown of Naravaripalle village in the Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu celebrated Sankranti with his family. He worshipped the village deity Nagalamma with his wife Bhuvaneswari, son Nara Lokesh, daughter-in-law Brahmani, grandson Devansh, and other family members. On the occasion of Makar Sankranti, the Chief Minister greeted the public. He wished that the celebration would bring joy and happiness into their lives. “I hope”I hope that even as we accept modernity, we continue to preserve our traditions without forgetting them, and that our villages, decked with harvests, shine even more brightly. In his speech, he added, “I promise that farmers will be happy on this Sankranti festival, laborers will receive the fruits worthy of their labor, and the government will act with greater responsibility through proper plans to assist this.” On Sankranti, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy also greeted the public. He said that this Sankranti, Telangana’s “people’s government” set a new record by paying farmers the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 70.82 lakh tonnes of paddy.
