The Sanskrit term "Shankramana" means "to begin to move".The day on which the sun begins to move northwards is called Makara Sankranti. This feast is celebrated on January 14th, and is the only feast of the Indian calendar which is not celebrated on a fixed day of the lunar month.The Makara Sankranti has a special significance. For the sun, symbolising knowledge, wisdom and spiritual light, which receded from you when you reveled in the darkness of ignorance, delusion and sensuality,now joyously turns on its northward course and rushes towards you,

To shed its light and warmth in greater abundance upon you and to infuse into you more life and energy. The day prior to the Makara Sankranti, is called the Bhogi festival. On this day, old, worn-out and dirty things are discarded and burnt. Houses are cleaned and white-washed. This is the festival of peasants. It is celebrated when the sun passes from Sagittarius to Capricorn & the transition is called Makara Sankranthi. A month before the festival the harvesting of crops begins. Gangireddula Vadu comes with a colourfully dressed pet bull. The bull sways its head, dances, sits and stands and does things in accordance with the rhythm of the music and commands of its master. The first day is called as Bhogi. On this day before sunrise youngsters collect dry twigs, grass, waste paper etc., make a heap & light a bonfire. Women and girls draw patterns on the ground using mortar powder. They make Gobbemmas i.e., lumps of cowdung and place it on the drawings in front of their houses. People pick up some ash from the bhogi fire & rub it on their foreheads. The special dish of the day is Pongal, a mixture of husked greengram and rice with salt and pepper powder cooked in a pot. The second day is the actual Sankranthi day. in the evening men & women go to their neighbours and relatives to offer sesame seeds, sugar & sugarcane pieces. Kanumu the third day is celebrated as a cattle festival. On this day the peasants wake up early to bathe their cattle & paint their horns with bright colors and tie bells around their necks. Some farmers go out to their fields, sacrifice a goat or a sheep and sprinkle the blood in their fields. Still some others take cooked rice and milk to the cattleshed offer some of it to the cattle and take the remainder to their fields and scatter it there. They believe that this offering keeps the ghosts away from their crops. in the villages on this day cockfights are held