Source: Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11472408?nclick_check=1
A Hindu group is hosting a kite festival on Saturday in Sunnyvale to coincide with a holiday that pays homage to the sun god, Lord Suryadev.
The public is invited to attend the free event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Baylands Park, 999 E. Caribbean Drive. Depending on whether you're calling it by the Hindi or Sanskrit name, this holiday is known as "Uttarayan" or "Makar Sankranti."
Participants are asked to bring their own kites and a vegetarian dish to share in a potluck meal. In India, this holiday is celebrated with much gaiety, where worshippers dip themselves into the Ganges River to purify themselves and head to temples to pray, said Sandip Shah of Sunnyvale, one of the organizers. The state of Gujarat, for example, hosts an annual International Festival of Kites.