Vrishchika Sankranti

Sankranti is a day when the sun transits from one zodiac to the other. According to the Hindu calendar, there are 12 months and thus there are 12 sankrantis in a year.

Almost all the sankrantis are auspicious time for performing the Shradh or the last rites, or for charity.

The Vrishchika Sankranti marks the movement of the Sun from the Tula Rashi to the Vruschika Rashi. According to the Gregorian calendar, the Vrishchika Sankranti corresponds with the movement of the sun from Libra to Scorpio Zodiac sign.

This offsets a new month in the calendar. The new month is known as Vrishchikam month in Malayalam, Ôgrôhayôn in Bengali and Karthigai in Tamil.

Vrishchika Sankranti is a day when the Sun God is worshipped. The devotees pray to DSurya to seek his blessings to fulfill their wishes. During the observance of the Vrishchika Sankranti, Sankraman snan or the ritualistic bathing done on the sankraman day, daan or Charity and Vishnu Puja are the rituals mostly observed. Also as all Sankraman are auspicious day to do Shradh or Pitru Tarpan, the Vrishchika Sankranti is also no different.

The maximum benefit of Daan or charity can be reaped if the Daan is performed between the start of the auspicious time till the sankranti moment. In the context of Daan or charity, is is said that the charity of a cow or Go-Daan brings great virtues to the devotees.

Reading and chanting of religious stotras are very beneficial on this day. Since Sura is worshipped during the Sankraman, Aditya Hrudyam or Suryashtakam are extremely beneficial. Vishnu Sahasranama is also an important religious text to be read on this day. Apart from this various other religious and Vedic texts chanting are considered to be beneficial.

Vrishchika Sankranti is the most auspicious sankranti for the Hindus residing in the eastern part of the country. The word San in Hindi means plenty and Kranti literally means radical change. Thus the word Sankranti literally means a time for radical changes. Thus, sankrantis are expected to usher in quite a number of auspicious changes in our lives. Thus the sankrantis are generally observed.