Pana Sankranti, also known as Maha Vishuba Sankranti, is the traditional new year day festival of Buddhists and Hindus in Odisha**, India**. The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the lunisolar calendar , as the first day of the traditional solar month of Mesha. This is identical to the purnimanta system of lunar month Baisakh (on Indian national system, it is the 24th day of Chaitra). It therefore almost always falls on 14 April every year on the Gregorian Calendar.
In the Odia tradition, the Pana Sankranti is believed to be the birthday of the Hindu deity Hanuman, whose loving devotion to Vishnu avatar Rama in Ramayana is legendary. His temples, along with those of Shiva and Surya (sun god) are revered on the new year.
Hindus also visit Devi (goddess) temples on Pana Sankranti.
We call this day as Pana Sankranti because a special pana or drink is prepared on this day to welcome the oncoming summer. This drink uses chatua also called sattu (roasted gram flour), chenna (paneer), fruits, bela (wood apple) pulp, grated coconut, yogurt, ginger and is sweetened using jaggery. This drink is supposed to have cooling properties that soothe the stomach during the hot summer months.
There are many traditions linked to this day for us. The one universal tradition we follow on this day is watering the tulsi (holy basil) plant that has been planted in the courtyard of many of our homes.
A scaffold is constructed of branches over the tulsi plant and shade is provided using leaves from the branches. A small earthenware pot with a hole underneath is suspended over the plant and a bamboo sliver guides the water droplets seeping out of the hole onto the tulsi leaves. This pot is called Basundhara Theki. The pot is refilled with water or pana the entire month.