Another day, another festival

Happy Makar Sankranti, or Sankranthi, or Uttarayan, or Lohri, or Pongal! Depending on where in India you are, or where you are from, dictates which of these festivals you are celebrating. Since I am in Karantaka, I am celebrating Sankranthi, the harvest festival. I think that all of the festivals celebrated today have to do with the harvest, but in certain parts of the country, it is also the annual kite-flying day. Anyway, starting today the sun with respect to the earth starts moving towards north signaling the oncoming of summer, so the festival also recoginizes the day that the glorious Sun-God of the Hindus begins its ascendancy and entry into the Northern Hemisphere. This is how the kite-flying ties into the festival, people offer colorful kites to please the Sun God. At least in Karnataka, the festival is celebrated by eating sugar cane, so along the streets there can be found tall stands of sugar cane for sale. We didn't try any, I was told that you need extremely strong teeth to eat the stuff and I figure the last thing that I need is some broken teeth. Well, I have eleven days to prepare for the next holiday...