gujarati
Uttarayan / Makar Sankranti
ઉત્તરાયણ
January · 2 days
Uttarayan is the day the sun begins its northward journey. It falls on January 14 — one of the few Indian festivals tied to the solar calendar rather than the moon, which is why it lands on the same date every year. The astronomical event is pan-Indian (Tamils know it as Pongal, Punjabis as Lohri, Bengalis as Poush Sankranti), but Gujarat keeps it as a kite festival: from sunrise to past sundown, rooftops across Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat are full of families flying patang against impossibly blue winter sky. The food is undhiyu — the slow-cooked mixed-vegetable casserole — and til-gud, the sesame-jaggery sweets exchanged with the wish that the words you speak through the coming year stay just as sweet.
What to do
Patang flying
EssentialFrom sunrise to past sundown, families take to rooftops or parks with kites — flying, cutting other people's kites with shouts of 'Kai Po Che!', and watching for the lantern displays that go up after dark.
Undhiyu meal
EssentialUndhiyu — the slow-cooked winter mixed-vegetable casserole — is the festival's required food. Surti papdi (lima beans), purple yam, small eggplant, methi muthia (fenugreek dumplings), all simmered with a coarse green masala.
Til-gud exchange
Sesame-jaggery sweets — chikki, ladoo, tilkut, sukhdi — are exchanged with the wish that the words you and the recipient speak through the year stay just as sweet.
Vasi Uttarayan
The day after — 'stale' Uttarayan. In Gujarat this is its own holiday: kite flying continues, leftover undhiyu is finished, and visits to extended family stretch through the afternoon.
Getting ready
Order or buy patang, firki (spool), and string from Indian store or Amazon kite kit
home
Source undhiyu vegetables — surti papdi, purple yam, methi, small eggplant; check Patel Brothers / Subzi Mandi
food
RSVP to Gujarati Samaj park event if attending
community
Order undhiyu in advance if not cooking — Surati Farsan, Tirupati Foods
food
Make methi muthia (can fry day before, fold in next day)
food
Buy til-gud chikki and ladoo to share with neighbors
food
Charge phone for sunset and night sky photos; sunscreen if on rooftop
home
In the diaspora
Uttarayan in the US is a parks-and-Patel-Brothers festival. Gujarati Samaj chapters in Edison NJ, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, and the Bay Area organize daytime kite-flying events at large public parks the Saturday closest to January 14 — suburban rooftops being neither flat nor neighborly enough for the Ahmedabad rooftop tradition. Patel Brothers and Subzi Mandi stock undhiyu ingredients (surti papdi, purple yam, eggplant, methi muthia) in early January; Surati Farsan Mart and Tirupati Foods sell pre-made undhiyu frozen for families who don't want to spend the day at the stove. Til-gud chikki and ladoo are everywhere by the first week of the month. Manja (kite line) is hard to source legally — most diaspora flyers use cotton string from Amazon kite kits.
Foods for this festival
What people eat and why — cultural context, not step-by-step recipes.
- Jalebi
જલેબી · juh-LEH-bee
Essential festive sweet across Gujarat, often paired with fafda or served with warm milk.
Essential festive sweet across Gujarat, often paired with fafda or served with warm milk.
- Shrikhand
શ્રીખંડ · SHREE-khund
Served with puri on Uttarayan. Popular during Navratri. A cooling summer dessert.
Served with puri on Uttarayan. Popular during Navratri. A cooling summer dessert.
- Til Chikki
તલ ચીક્કી · CHIK-kee
An Uttarayan fixture — sesame and jaggery count as warming foods in winter, and chikki keeps for weeks of kite season snacking.
An Uttarayan fixture — sesame and jaggery count as warming foods in winter, and chikki keeps for weeks of kite season snacking.
- Undhiyu
ઊંધિયું · OON-dhee-yoo
Named for how it was cooked — undhu, upside down, in a sealed earthen pot over coals. Now a winter event dish: families make it in bulk for Uttarayan and invite people over.
Named for how it was cooked — undhu, upside down, in a sealed earthen pot over coals. Now a winter event dish: families make it in bulk for Uttarayan and invite people over.
Find recipes
When is Uttarayan?
- Uttarayan 2025
- January 14–15, 2025
- Uttarayan 2026
- January 14–15, 2026
- Uttarayan 2027
- January 15–16, 2027
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