HAPPY SANKRANTHI

[Guest guest]

I WISH YOU ALL A VERY SPECIAL & HAPPY SANKRANTHI.

 

Dr. Krishna Rao, G.M.

 

Added by moderator - For those wondering what Sankranthi is please visit

http://www.festivalsofindia.in/makarsankranti/

Moderators request members from countries other than India also to post

information about such festivals which maybe locally celebrated but have a

health connection, alongwith details if possible.

To see how customs celebrated in makar sankranti are utilised by ayurveda visit

the following two posts previously posted on Ayurveda Online.

http://health.ayurveda/message/8670

http://health.ayurveda/message/8868

[Guest guest]

the timing of this holiday has always confused me

 

shouldn't uttarayana should begin with the winter solstice, i.e.

december 21/22?

and in turn, shouldn't dakshinayana should begin june 21/22?

 

it seems to me that the current calendar is off by about 3 weeks,

which can be explained by a failure to account for the precession of

the equinoxes

 

it appears i am not the only one scratching my head about this, and i

have since met several individuals in India and Nepal trying to

promote the reform of the hindu calendar

 

any comments?

 

here is an article from the Kathmandu Post, from a couple years ago:

 

***

 

Calendars behind by 23 days

 

BY PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

 

KATHMANDU, June 22 - Are your getting married? Are you observing your

father’s or mother’s death anniversary? Be careful, the astrologers’

advice on auspicious dates for conducting such rituals are all wrong,

if a report presented by the Festival Reforms National Taskforce

(FRNT) to the government Friday means anything. According to the

report, the earth’s rotation around its axis at an inclination of

23.5 degrees has resulted in a gain of one day every 72 years. There

has been no adjustment for this in calendars since the past 1,656

years. This means that the calendars are behind by 23 days.

 

Conducting rituals on auspicious dates and at auspicious hours is a

widespread tradition in Nepal. Since the calendar our astrologers use

to suggest such days and hours is flawed, we have been celebrating

even our important festivals on the wrong days, claimed astrologers

in the report presented to Minister of Culture,Tourism and Civil

Aviation Prithvi Subba Gurung. FRNT, a 19-member committee, was

formed by the ministry on December 12 last year following a

controversy over the accuracy of calendars in use. The taskforce,

headed by Jal Krishna Shrestha, joint secretary at the ministry,

comprises astrologers and religious figures, among others.

 

“We are fixing our auspicious occasions and religious festivals on

the basis of a virtual date which is 23 days behind the actual date,”

said Jayanta Acharya, a member of the taskforce, adding, “Due to this

wrong practice, we have been missing and are going to keep on missing

our religious festivals.”

 

After presenting the 90-page report, Acharya recommended that the

difference between the virtual and actual dates be made nil so that

the festivals are celebrated on the right dates, and people conduct

their rituals on the right days and at the right hours.

 

FRNT has suggested that the government make necessary preparations

for adjusting the dates by 2010. Presenting the report, Hari Narayan

Malla, member-secretary of FRNT, suggested that the government

organize an international seminar of astrologers to inform the world

about this before the recommendations are implemented.

 

“How surprising! The actual date for Saune Shakranti, the first day

of Shrawan, which we are going to celebrate on 17th July, was

actually on 21 June” said Malla. “We should not continue this wrong

practice any more.”

 

After receiving the report, Minister Gurung said that the

recommendation would be made public for general awareness.

 

“The revised dates should match international religious calendars so

that religious occasions can be celebrated simultaneously,” he said.

Caldecott

todd

www.toddcaldecott.com

[Guest guest]

Dear Online friends,

 

If we believe that God created the Universe (Cosmos

and what not). then every day is God's creation and

therefore pious to perform rituals that one wants to.

Rituals are not God's creations. They are the result

of fertile imaginations of different people. Since man

has an innate doubting foolishness, he becomes a pray

to gullible branmins to tell us the auspicious day for

every ritual. I say, anything done with full sincerity

from the heart (not the mind as it goes on questioning

things and creating more doubts) it is pious. It is

the feeling that is important and so much the act.

As to astronomy, it is again an unending subject. New

galaxies are being formed every second and old

disappearing into what we call a black hole which is

also not final as tomorrow another scientist might

prove the theory of black hole incorrect or wrong.

As to the solicetices and uttarayan, etc. the Hindu

calendar is a mix of the movements of the moon and the

sun. It goes according to full moon to full moon or

whatever it is. Astrologers have tried to adjust it by

having an extra moon month (adhik mas) every couple of

years. Many persons follow the week days with Sunday

(Raviwar) belonging to the Sun God, Monday the moon

God and so on. They also observe fast as per these

days. Some observe fast on Thursdays (Guruwar) while

others observe on other day like on Saturday to please

Saturn, the Shani Maharaj.

Since man does not live by bread alone, we have all

these endless arguments. Whoever wins due to his

better wits is the winner.

So, dear friends, let us not sratch our heads

unneessarily. I also see the sun rise and sunset

timings every day. It was many days after Dec 23, that

the day becomes the smallest and the night longest.It

is only now that I find the day a few seconds longer

than 11 hours and the nights shorter than 13 hours,

sunrise being 0711 hours and sunset 1817 hours as

reported in the Times of India dated January 15. The

days started becoming longer about a week back. Before

that, the days were becoming shorter even after Dec

23.Hence, let us accept the tradition that is decided

by astrologers so far. If they change it, people will

start following it. Nothig is final in this world. Let

us accept what appeals to our minds and be happy.

With these words, I wish happy Makar Sankrani and a

happy New Year to all till the next Makar Sankranti.

I am not arguing but only giving my way how to feel

happy in all circumstances.

 

S. M. Acharya. <smacharya

___________

the timing of this holiday has always confused me

[Guest guest]

dear SM Acharya

 

i take to heart what you say, and believe that you have the correct

perspective in this matter

 

for me personally it doesn't matter, and i am happy to celebrate

everyone's holidays in whatever manner they choose (as long as the

firecrackers are kept to a minimum!)

 

my _only_ interest is that when i explain rutucharya to students, and

discuss the division of the uttarayana and daksinayana, we need to

have some idea of the correct dates for these, and sometimes students

will note that the winter solstice and makar sankranti (which is

supposed to denote the beginning of the uttarayana) don't match up

 

with regard to length of day or night, it does depend on how close

one is to the equator, however, there is no doubt that in the

northern hemisphere, the shortest day of the year is the winter

solstice, not January 14

 

if some can claim that this is a battle of wits then let them argue,

however, there are certain facts that cannot be logically disputed

 

at the US Naval Observatory, they have a calculator to determine

sunrise/sunset times for anywhere in the world

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php

 

below are the timings for Mumbai, India (E072 50, N18 58)

 

Dec 14, 2007

sunrise: 07:03(am)

sunset: 18:03 (6:03pm)

net daylight: 11 hours

 

Dec 21, 2007 (Winter Solstice)

sunrise 07:07(am)

sunset: 18:06 am (6:06pm)

net daylight: 10 hours, 59 minutes

 

Jan 1, 2008

sunrise: 07:12(am)

sunset: 18:12 (6:12pm)

net daylight: 11 hours

 

Jan 7, 2008

sunrise: 07:13(am)

sunset: 18:16 (6:16pm)

net daylight: 11 hours, 3 minutes

 

Jan 14, 2008 (Makar Sankranti)

sunrise: 07:15(am)

sunset: 18:21 (6:21pm)

net daylight: 11 hours, 6 minutes

 

as we can see, the shortest day is around the 21 of December, and

from thence forward, the days get longer

 

thus, the uttarayana, which technically refers to the movement of the

sun into the northern hemisphere, begins with the actual solstice and

unfortunately not on the date that makar sankranti is currently

celebrated

 

there is also a flash animation that visually demonstrates the length

of the days throughout the year here:

http://www.cs.sbcc.cc.ca.us/~physics/flash/LengthofDay.swf

 

best wishes....

Caldecott, Dip. Cl.H, RH(AHG)

Ayurvedic practitioner, Medical Herbalist

203 - 1750 East 10th Ave

Vancouver, BC V5N 5K4 CANADA

web: http//:www.toddcaldecott.com

email: todd

tel: (1)778.896.8894

fax: (1)866.703.2792

_________________

So, dear friends, let us not sratch our heads

unneessarily. I also see the sun rise and sunset

timings every day. It was many days after Dec 23, that

the day becomes the smallest and the night longest.It

is only now that I find the day a few seconds longer

than 11 hours and the nights shorter than 13 hours,

sunrise being 0711 hours and sunset 1817 hours as

reported in the Times of India dated January 15. The

days started becoming longer about a week back. Before

that, the days were becoming shorter even after Dec

23.Hence, let us accept the tradition that is decided

by astrologers so far.

[Guest guest]

ayurveda , Todd Caldecott <todd

wrote:

> my _only_ interest is that when i explain rutucharya to students,

and

> discuss the division of the uttarayana and daksinayana, we need to

> have some idea of the correct dates for these, and sometimes

students

> will note that the winter solstice and makar sankranti (which is

> supposed to denote the beginning of the uttarayana) don't match up

 

 

Above confusion arisen as it is assumed that Uttarayana starts with

Makar Sankranthi. This assumption is not correct. If someone is

interested to know when uttarayana starts, he should refer to

eupmerides followed by most astrologers. The most used and oldest

such book is " Janmabhumi Sukshma Nirayan Bharatiya Panchang " being

published for more than last 60 years from Mumbai. THis book was started at the

instance of Kanchi Kamkoti Peethadhiswar Jagadgurru Shankaracharya, and receives

blessings from this peetha.

 

If one opens it, he sees that change from Dakshinayana to Uttarayana

is always around Dec. 21, not Makar Sankranthi. Same day sun enters

Sayana Capricorn sign. (e.g. in 2004, Uttarayana started on Dec 21,

at 18:13 IST or 12:43 GMT) Uttarayan does not depend on place on the

planet, while length of day will depend. Sour Shishir Rutu starts on

the same instant. Thus uttarayana/Daskhinayana are being defined by

solstices while, Sun enters Nirayana Capricorn sign on Jan 14/15

which correctly defines Makar sankranthi.

 

Since most indian astrologers follow nirayana system (fixed zodiac),

the precession of the earth's axis is a variable removed once and for

all. The first point of Aries (beginning of zodiac) is so defined

that zodiac is fixed with ref. to most distant visible star. For the

purpose of arriving at fixed zodiac, one subtracts the ayanamsa

(precession bias) from sayana longitudes.

 

IN a meeting of prominenet astronomers and astrologers, dated 7-8

Sept. 1966, the ayanamsa arrived at by the longitude of " Chitra " star

are accepted as most appropriate for calculation of almanac.

 

More important than rutucharya, patients coming with angina/chest

tightness problems indicates the changeovers, according this authors

experience. whenever sun-saturn are in some relationship,

heart/angina/hypertension patients experience some ups and downs.

These appear to be governed by fixed zodiac of Indian system rather

than variable western zodiac. Mudanne astrology also tries to predict

political events. the major influence of sun-saturn relationship is

to give jolts to throne, and author has seen that political

instabilities of ruling governments accurately start when sun-saturn

change fixed zodiac signs. The sun remaining in one sign just for 30

days is a big relief for heart patients.

 

And what is surprising to this author is significant flow of patients

suffering from vitiated pitta in winter days! He feels that sun-spot

cycles, magnetic storms and global warming are more significant

factors rather than just sun-moon relationships.