The city is also set to celebrate the three-day Sankranti festival in a traditional and grand way. The festival mood has already set in as the houses are decorated with festoons of mango leaves tied to the main doorframe; the onset of gangireddulu and haridasulu visits; colourful muggulu (rangoli) drawn in front yards of the houses and gobbemmalu (decorated lumps of cow dung) placed at centre of muggulu.
The kite vendors had a gala time and made a fast buck as the number of kids swarming to their shops swelled. Colourful kites dotting the skies were seen as some children and youths flew kites on Sunday itself. The people participating in various competitions organised to mark one of the major festivals of the Telugus was also seen on a large-scale in the city. Some organisations like Vasavi Club Vijayawada Pearls organised ‘rangoli’ competitions at Satyanarayanapuram here. Women folk enthusiastically took part in the competitions displaying their skills in drawing the colourful ‘muggulu’.
The streets were abuzz with activity and the Sankranti mood pervaded the shops and malls also. The shopkeepers and malls did their best to attract customers. The shopkeepers were also offering attractive Sankranti discounts with neon signs flashing percentage of discount on their products. The malls, too, saw considerable crowds, with many young revellers thronging them.
In some cases, they were at the mall just looking around, spending time with friends and generally chilling out on the holiday.
Fruit vendors decorated their stalls or pushcarts with sugarcane. The regi pallu, red date or Chinese date, dotted the markets. The people use regi pallu, sugarcane pieces etc for Bhogi celebrations. They shower the kids with regi pallu, banthi rekulu (marigold) etc on Bhogi. The Monday, first day of celebrations, begins with Bhogi, bonfire. The people lit bonfires on the streets with agricultural and household waste to mark Bhogi.
