Kite Festival - Elementary School Guest Blog Edition
We continue to celebrate Sankranti! Our next blogger, JJ, age 10, talks about why the kite flying is huge during Sankranti.
The festival Sankranti is a very important festival for Hindus for many reasons. The festival is a 4 day festival and is very important to them. The festival is to honor the sun god Surya. It is celebrated during January 13-16 with the main day on the 14th. The traditional things to do are fly kites, draw rangoli patterns, and eat sweets cooked with sesame seeds and rice or grain-based foods.
Kite flying is a very popular activity. The reason they are very popular is because Hindus believe that the kites help expose people to the sun's rays, which they believe was good for them. Remember, the festival Sankranti is to celebrate the sun god, so what better way to expose you to the sun than to be outside and fly a kite? This activity is very interesting. Of course, there are many other ways to celebrate Sankranti and this is only one of them. Let’s hope the sun shines upon us during Sankranti!