Houston Maharashtra Mandal Sankrant Event 2017

 By Pooja Gokhale

HOUSTON: Houston Maharashtra Mandal celebrated the Makar Sankrant event with great pomp and show on January 21, at Shri Radha Krishna Hall. The event was a huge success with over 500 attendees.

Makar Sankrant is celebrated every year in the month of January. It marks the end of winter and beginning of harvest season in India. In Maharashtra, haldi kunku by married women and kite flying by kids hold significance during Sankrant. Tilgul, a sweet made from jaggery and sesame seeds is distributed by people amongst themselves.

The HMM Sankrant event attendees were welcomed by the committee members to a hall adorned with beautiful decorations including kites, garlands, lights, flowers, rangoli and sarees. The attendees after checking in at the front desk were offered tilgul. Ladies were welcomed with haldi kunku and were presented vaan, tilgul and Marathi calendar.

The event started with an opening speech by HMM President Anjou Sathe Keller, followed by a two minutes silence in the remembrance of Tabla maestro Dexter Raghunanan.

The cultural event for the first time featured a fashion show. Little girls wearing traditional 9 yard sarees and little boys wearing pajama kurtas walked the ramp on the beats of authentic Marathi music. Ladies showcased black sarees, as is customary during Sankrant, draped in different styles. The fashion show was highly appreciated by the audience.

Following the fashion show “Bornahan” was organized for little kids. The kids wearing traditional attire and white beads jewelry were showered with white sugar balls, popcorns and candies. Parents were thrilled to see their little ones and captured all the moments that they could. Every hour, raffle prizes were announced which were given away by our sponsors.

Along with the activities being performed on stage the event had 21 stalls comprising of food, games, home décor, clothes, jewelry, kite making and henna application. The food stalls featured traditional Marathi delicacies like gul poli, modak, etc. The patrons dressed in beautiful attires also enjoyed other delicious mouthwatering foods like jhunaka bhakar, dahi vada, bhel, dahi puri, and many more. Thirst quenchers like kokam sherbet and sol kadhee were welcoming.

The event culminated with fun filled games for kids, which included sack race, three legged race and musical chairs. The enthusiasm shown by kids was unparalleled. The adults also tried their luck in musical chairs.

The effort, enthusiasm, exceptional creativity and great teamwork of HMM 2017 committee made the event successful. HMM 2017 committee would like to take the opportunity to thank all our attendees, HMM volunteers, Shri Radha Krishna Hall patrons and HMM sponsors and Raffle sponsors. We would like to extend our special thanks to Alings’, Vishala and Bombay Bazaar for their continued support.

Our next event Marathi Movie “Ti Sadhya Kay Karate will be screened at Palladium Theatre on February 4, 2017. For more details and ticket purchase please visit our website at www.hmmhouston.org.