This time of year in India is like the time between Thanksgiving and Chirstmas.... Festivites galore.... Vim has pulled together a post for all of you detailing some of the meaning around the festivities....
Its Time to Celebrate…………………………..
It will be a wonderful time this year in India…memorable. Devyani, M&M and I will be able to experience and participate many events, but it will our first to be part of the line of events not so deeply followed anywhere else but here in India.
The months of September and October are very auspicious months in the Hindu calendar. As mentioned in an earlier ‘blog’ we have already participated in the Ganesh Puja. According to Hindu mythological scriptures Lord Ganesha was formed by Goddess Parvati, wife of Lord Shiva. It is said that one day Parvati formed a sculpture from the sandalwood paste that she used on her body before taking a bath. She infused life in that figure and ordered him to guard the entrance of her bathroom. God Shiva returned and stopped at the entrance of his house by that boy. In extreme rage Shiva struck off the boy’s head. This incident filled Parvati in utter grief and requested Shiva to return her son. Then Shiva fixed the head of an elephant and restored life onto the body of that boy. Lord Shiva named this boy as ‘Ganpati’ Gan means (hosts) & Pati means (Chief) and blessed that Ganpati would be worshipped before every new venture.
The end of the Ganesh Puja marks the start of the events that lead up to the Hindu Christmas – DIWALI.
Currently Hindus all around the world are celebrating; Navratri. Nava meaning Nine and Ratri meaning nights. The 9 nights festival of Navratri begins on the first day of Ashwina of the bright fortnight. Seeds are sown, sprouting is watched, the planets are consecrated, and on the 8th and 9th days, Goddess Durga, Laxmi and Saraswati are worshipped. Basically texts invoking the Goddess who vanquished demons are cited.
The day after Navratri i.e. the 10th day after Ashwina, is Dussera which celebrates the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana. Navaratri is celebrated in different ways throughout India. In North India by fasting on all nine days, South and East India idols of Goddess Durja are worshipped and then immersed in the river. But… the most common and fun way to celebrate Navtratri is as they do in Western India – Gujarat and all over the world were ever Hindu’s reside is to dance!...... Just to jog the memory of our many of our non Hindu friends in and around Michigan this is the enjoyable, vibrant, colorful energetic dance, dancing in a cirlcle called ‘Garba’ or ‘The Stick Dance’ called ‘Dandiya’ Rather than go into too much detail more details can be read/searched on at: www. wikipedia.org
Once Navartri ends the preparations will start for Diwali………..
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2 comments:
That's really good information , Vim. It must be nice for the kids to experience true indian culture. Last night we took our kids to garba, they had a blast just running around with lots of other kids.
Take care.
Hi Alpa! I am sure that Garba in NJ are great!! There are so many Inidans there! Hope that you are doing well! Dev
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