The city celebrated the onset of harvest festival on Saturday with greetings of Tilgul ghya and goad goad bola (eat tilgul and talk sweetly). While kids rejoiced good food and flying kite throughout all day, elders went for early morning holy dip to cleanse their sins.While Makar Sankranti announces the harvest season in Maharashtra, it also marks the transition of the sun into the zodiac sign of Makara (Capricorn) as it travels on its celestial path. This change marks the end of the winters. According to the Hindu calender, Sankranti falls on the first day of the month of Magha. As much as it is a seasonal observance celebrating the onset of spring, it is a harvest as well as a religious celebration.The festival is known as Thai Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Maghi in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, Uttarayan in Gujarat and Bhogali Bihu in Assam.Traditional sweet delicacies made of jaggery, sesame and groundnut are prepared on this occasion to beat the cold during this season.A local resident, Sangita Patil said, "Men and women usually wear black-coloured clothes on this day. The colour black is particularly significant for married women who socialise and exchange haldi-kunku and also distribute small utility gifts known as 'vaan' to other women in their friends and family."Another resident, Madhura Yadav said, "Haldi-kunku is the most important ceremony of the festival for married women. During this ceremony, we invite friends and family and exchange treats and gifts with them. It is a daylong celebration and a traditional excuse for people to meet."She added, "Haldi-kunku sessions will be organised until Rathasaptami during which women exchange scented flowers and gifts like coconut, sugar and other utility items and take each other blessings."Bor-nahan (berry-shower ceremony) is celebrated on Sankranti where children receive gifts and blessings from elders in their family. Symbolically, a mixture of puffed rice and sweets are showered on them.

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