This is the Ellu Bella mixture made for Sankranti, distributed to friends and family!
F*R*I*E*N*D*S
Showing posts with label Sankranti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sankranti. Show all posts
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sankranti photos
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Paper tube sugarcane
This is another simple craft we did for sankranti. Used the empty gift wrapping paper tube and asked putti to paint it entirely. Could use the kitchen paper napkin or aluminium foil tube too. Once the paint dried cut the tube into into 2 and then painted circles with white and black to mark the sections on the sugarcane. Later glued lilly leaves to one end.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sweet necklace for Sankranti
On the evening of sankranti, it is customary to decorate little kids with necklaces made from small sweet balls. And while searching for more info on these i learnt that this practise is more in Maharashtra, where they dress the kids in black dress and deck them with sugar jewels and later perform a ceremony called 'Bor nahan' which literally means berry shower!!
photo from internet
And since these are not available for us here in USA, we had made necklaces of marshmellows last year. This year it was colorful fruitloop necklaces which putti happily threaded:)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sankranti coloring pages
Using some pics from google images, i tried to make coloring pages depicting important events of 'Sankranti'. Putti did color 1-2 of these per day while i would keep saying about it. And as a result of these today while she spoke to her grandpa over phone she said 'we celebrated sankranti' !! I am on cloud nine :-)
Some of colored pages..
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Happy Makara Sankranti !!!
Its so easy for kids growing in India to learn about our festivals. They dont need any special books or clases to teach them that. A quick tour to the local grocery stores during the festival will enlighten us about the significance of any festival.
But for my putti is growing far away from all these, we need to put in our efforts to teach her. The schools here read books/ do art and craft and sing songs about the particular celebration that whole month. I too decided to take the same path to teach putti.
For sankranti, i wanted to make a powerpoint slideshow, but due to the cold n cough that has been running in the family for over a mnth now.. i wasnt able to do any of that. But did show a couple of pics on google images and talked to her about sankranti.
We have made a banner for it though. Putti loves to paint on coffee filter paper, as the colors spread so well and blend easily too. We have played with it previously too. I just folded the paper and trimmed the edges to make them look like sun. Gave putti yellow, orange and red to paint. She enjoyed painting them. Later stick the printed kannada letters on them.
But for my putti is growing far away from all these, we need to put in our efforts to teach her. The schools here read books/ do art and craft and sing songs about the particular celebration that whole month. I too decided to take the same path to teach putti.
We have made a banner for it though. Putti loves to paint on coffee filter paper, as the colors spread so well and blend easily too. We have played with it previously too. I just folded the paper and trimmed the edges to make them look like sun. Gave putti yellow, orange and red to paint. She enjoyed painting them. Later stick the printed kannada letters on them.
Wishing you all a very happy Makara Sankranti !!!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sankranti 2010!
Update: This article is re-posted here.
The main event of sankranti is exchange of eLLu bella, a home made sugar candy called sakkre(meaning sugar) acchu (meaning mould) along with fruits etc.
Recipe of eLLu bella here
Recipe of sakkare acchu here
Last year Putti had an elaborate festival in India with cousins and grandparents. This year Hemanth was at a conference in SanDiego so it was just me and Putti at home. And hemanth had taken the camera with him, so thought would miss her photos this time. But then thanks to my friend who invited us to join her in her house for the festival. It was her son's first festival. So we went there in the evening!.
Putti is all dressed and ready to go distribute Ellu-Bella :)
The main event of sankranti is exchange of eLLu bella, a home made sugar Recipe of eLLu bella here
Recipe of sakkare acchu here
Last year Putti had an elaborate festival in India with cousins and grandparents. This year Hemanth was at a conference in SanDiego so it was just me and Putti at home. And hemanth had taken the camera with him, so thought would miss her photos this time. But then thanks to my friend who invited us to join her in her house for the festival. It was her son's first festival. So we went there in the evening!.
In the evening the children in the house will be made to sit and a mixture of eLLu bella , ziziphus berries called as elchi haNNu in kannada , pieces of sugarcane, coins are mixed and poured over their head and an aarathi is performed. The neighbors are invited to participate in this ritual. This is done to drive away the evil eye. The reason behind using the elchi hannu is that these berries are red like the sun and round in shape like the sun. Thus it is believed that showering these on the kids will give them sun lord’s blessings. These berries being unavailable here in US, I thought maybe I can use cherries or something else similar!! Some people also decorate their kids with garlands made of Kusuri Kalu /Sesame seeds coated with sugar, such as this child in this photo. But this being unavailable in USA, my friend had made a garland of marshmallows to her son and Putti.
Similar tradition of sweet ball garland is seen in parts of north Karnataka too. Also the Marati people on ‘Gudipadwa’ which is the same as our ‘yugadi’ also deck the kids with sugar balls. Mrs. Mala Rao of Nandagokula blog told me about this. You can see her little son ‘Amartya krishna’ in jelly bean garland for yugadhi !
My friend showering the kids with a mixture of soaked
black channa, cashew, almonds, coins …..
black channa, cashew, almonds, coins …..
We do only the red water(water mixed with kumkum) aarati to kids. But along with this my friend also had made lamps out of wheat flour to bless the kids!! Something unique and new ritual to me!!
Kids being blessed with wheatflour lamps..
Also my mother used to mention about a tradition called ‘Gombe ellu’ that’s she observed in a place called kalasa in Karnataka where she lived when she was a kid. There on the day of sankranti only the married women go out and distribute ellu bella amongst friends. The next day was meant for little gilrs and it was called ‘gombe ellu’. The little girls would give ellu in small gombe(doll) shaped containers. And then a friend of mine told me she is having ‘bombe ellu’ this time as she has a newborn at home this year!!
My Sister in law who after marriage is residing in Hyderabad, Andhrapradesh and following many of the local customs told me that on the evening of first day of the festival they too shower small kids with a mixture called as “Bhogi paLLu” (భోగి పళ్ళు) which includes soaked channa, pieces of sugarcane, berries called ‘regi pandlu in telugu’ and copper coins.
My Sister in law who after marriage is residing in Hyderabad, Andhrapradesh and following many of the local customs told me that on the evening of first day of the festival they too shower small kids with a mixture called as “Bhogi paLLu” (భోగి పళ్ళు) which includes soaked channa, pieces of sugarcane, berries called ‘regi pandlu in telugu’ and copper coins.
Now I knew why my friend archana had used soaked channa( as she too has telugu ancestory). She also told me that some houses do arrange dolls that day which is called as ‘bommala kolluvu’ She also told me that in certain parts of Andhra people use rice, other pulses, coins, flower petals etc. I found many such photos on Google when I searched for the word bhogi pallu!
A friend of mine, Arati has arranged her plate beautifully
with puffed rice, sugarcane pices and candies.
with puffed rice, sugarcane pices and candies.
Whatever the differences in way of these celebrations, the main goal of each one us is to pary and wish for the well being of our lovely kids.
