The document discusses several religious customs and festivals celebrated in India in relation to crop calendars, including Bihu, Pongal, Sankranti, and Haj Yatra. Bihu, Pongal, and Sankranti are harvest festivals associated with the Hindu calendar and celebrated with feasts, music, dancing, and rituals giving thanks for the harvest. Haj Yatra refers to the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and involves performing rituals at various religious sites around Mecca over several days.

1. UNIT 1: IMPACT OF RURAL SOCIO-CULTURAL PRACTICES
IN INDIA
Name:- Rajkumar Porel
Sub:- M.Sc Geography
 Religious Customs In Relation To Crop Calendars In Relation To Crop
Calendars: Bihu, Pongal, Sankranti & Haj Yatra:-
Crop Calendar:-
The Crop Calendaris a tool that provides timely information about seeds to promote
local crop production. It contains information on planting, sowing and harvesting
periods of locally adapted crops in specific agro-ecological zones.
-:Bihu:-
Bihu is a set of three important assamese festivals in the indian state of assam—rongali or
bohag bihu observed in april, kongali or kati bihu observed in october, and bhogali or magh
bihu observed in january.the rongali bihu is the most important of the three, celebrating spring
festival. The bhogali bihu or the magh bihu is a harvest festival, with community feasts. The
kongali bihu or the kati bihu is the sombre, thrifty one reflecting a seasonof short supplies and
is an animistic festival.
The rongali bihu coincides the assamese new year and as well as with other regions of indian
subcontinent, [east asia] and south-east asia, which follow the hindu calendar and buddhist
calendar.the other two bihu festivals every year are unique to assamese people. Like some other
indian festivals, bihu is associated with agriculture, and rice in particular. Bohag bihu is a
sowing festival, kati bihu is associated with crop protection and worship of plants and crops and
is an animistic form of the festival, while bhogali bihu is a harvest festival. Assamese celebrate
the rongali bihu with feasts, music and dancing. Some hang brass, copperor silver pots on poles
in front of their house, while children wear flower garlands then greet the new year as they pass
through the rural streets.
The three bihu are assamese festivals with reverence for krishna, cattle (goru bihu), elders in
family, fertility and mother goddess, butthe celebrations and rituals reflect influences
from southeast asia and sino-tibetan cultures. In contemporary times, the bihus are celebrated by
all assamese people irrespective of religion, caste or creed. It is also celebrated overseas by
the assamese diaspora community living worldwide.
The term bihu is also used to imply bihu dance otherwise called bihu naas and bihu folk
songs also called bihu geet.

2. -:Pongal:-
Pongal (also spelled Poṅkal), is also referred to as Thai Pongal (also spelled Thai Pongal), is
a multi-day harvest festival of South Indian Hindus, particularly in Hindu Tamil community.It
is observed at the start of the month Thai according to Tamil solar calendar, and this is typically
about January 14. It is dedicated to the Hindu sun god, the Surya, and corresponds to Makar
Sankranti, the harvest festival under many regional names celebrated throughout India. The four
days of the Pongal festival are called BhogiPongal, Suryan Pongal, Maattu
Pongal and Kaanum Pongal.
According to tradition, the festival marks the end of winter solstice, and the start of the sun's
six-month-long journey northwards when the sun enters the zodiac Makara (Capricorn). The
festival is named after the ceremonial "Pongal", which means "to boil, overflow" and refers to
the traditional dish prepared from the new harvest of rice boiled in milk with jaggery (raw
sugar). To mark the festival, the pongal sweet dish is prepared, first offered to the gods and
goddesses (goddessPongal), followed sometimes with an offering to cows, and then shared by
the family. Festive celebrations include decorating cows and their horns, ritual bathing and
processions. It is traditionally an occasionfor decorating rice-powder based kolam artworks,
offering prayers in the home, temples, getting together with family and friends, and exchanging
gifts to renew social bonds ofsolidarity.
Pongal is one of the most important festivals celebrated by Tamil people in Tamil
Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry in India. It is also a major
Tamil festival in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and Mauritius. It is also observed by the
Tamil diaspora worldwide,including those in South Africa, United States, United
Kingdom, Middle East and Canada.
-:Sankranti:-
MakarSankranti or Uttarayan or Maghi or simply Sankranti, also known in Bangladesh
as Poush Sankranti, is a festival day in the Hindu calendar, dedicated to the deity Surya (sun).
It is observed each year the day Sun enters the Capricorn zodiac which correspondswith the
month of January as per the Gregorian calendar. It marks the first day of the sun's transit
into Makara rashi (Capricorn), marking the end of the month with the winter solstice and the
start of longer days.
MakarSankranti is one of the few ancient Indian festivals that has been observed according
to solar cycles, while most festivals are set by the lunar cycle of the lunisolar Hindu
calendar.Being a festival that celebrates the solar cycle, it almost always falls on the same
Gregorian date every year (January 14),except in some years when the date shifts by a day for
that year (January 15).As a result, it can fall on different date of the Hindu calendar each year.

3. The festivities associated with Makar Sankranti are known by various names Magh Bihu in
Assam, Maghi (preceded by Lohri) in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, popular amongst
both the Hindus and Sikhs, Sukarat in central India, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan in
Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, Ghughuti in Uttarakhand, Makara Sankranti in Odisha,
Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal (also called PoushSankranti), Uttarakhand and
Uttar Pradesh (also called Khichidi Sankranti) or as Sankranthi in Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana, Maghe Sankrat (Nepal), Songkran (Thailand), Thingyan (Myanmar),
Mohan Songkran (Cambodia), and Shishur Sankrat (Kashmir). On Makar Sankranti the Sun god
is worshipped along with Lord Vishnu and goddess Lakshmi throughout India.
Makar Sankranti is observed with social festivities such as colorful decorations, rural children
going house to house, singing and asking for treats in some areas,melas (fairs), dances, kite
flying, bonfires and feasts.The Magha Mela, according to Indologist Diana L. Eck, is mentioned
in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.Manyobservers go to sacred rivers or lakes and bathe in a
ceremony of thanks to the sun.Every twelve years, the Hindus observe Makar
Sankranti with Kumbha Mela – one of the world's largest mass pilgrimage, with an estimated
40 to 100 million people attending the event. At this event, they say a prayer to the sun and
bathe at the Prayaga confluence of the River Ganga and River Yamuna,a tradition attributed
to Adi Shankaracharya.
-:Haj Yatra:-
The Hajj (Arabic: Ḥajj "pilgrimage"; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is
an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is
a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by
all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and of
supporting their family during their absence from home.
In Islamic terminology, Hajj is a pilgrimage made to the Kaaba, the "House of God", in the
sacred city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam,
alongside Shahadah, Salat, Zakat and Sawm or fasting of Ramadan. The Hajj is a demonstration
of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to God (Allah). The word Hajj
means "to attend a journey", which connotes both the outward act of a journey and the inward
act of intentions.
The rites of pilgrimage are performed over five to six days, extending from the 8th to the 12th
or 13th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar.[10] Because the Islamic calendar
is lunar and the Islamic year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year, the Gregorian
date of Hajj changes from year to year. In 2021 AD (1442 AH), Dhu al-Hijjah extends from 11
July to 8 August.
The Hajj is associated with the life of Islamic prophet Muhammad from the 7th century AD, but
the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to
the time of Abraham. During Hajj, pilgrims join processions ofmillions of people, who

4. simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Hajj, and perform a series of rituals:
each personwalks counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba (a cube-shaped building
and the direction of prayer for Muslims), trots (walks briskly) back and forth between the hills
of Safa and Marwah seven times, then drinks from the Zamzam Well, goes to the plains
of Mount Arafat to stand in vigil, spends a night in the plain of Muzdalifa, and performs
symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing stones at three pillars. After the sacrifice of an animal
(can be accomplished by using a voucher (see below)), the Pilgrims then are required to either
shave or trim their heads (male) or trim the ends of their hair (female). A celebration of the
three-day global festival of Eid al-Adha proceeds thereafter.
Muslims may also undertake an Umrah or "lesser pilgrimage" to Mecca at other times of the
year. But this is not a substitute for the Hajj and Muslims are still obligated to perform the Hajj
at some other point in their lifetime if they have the means to do so.
According to the official published statistics between 2000 and 2019, the average number of
attendees is 2,269,145 per year, in which 1,564,710 come from outside Saudi Arabia and
671,983 are local. The year 2012 marks the highest number of participants with 3,161,573.
In June 2020, while not cancelling the Hajj outright, the Saudi Government announced that they
would only welcome "very limited numbers" of pilgrims who are residents of Saudi Arabia due
to the global COVID-19 pandemic.Similar restrictions applied in 2021, but women were
permitted to attend without a male guardian (mehrem) provided they went in a trustworthy
group.