HindiLearner News

Festival of Lights

Diwali (also called Deepawali) is a Hindu festival of lights and is being celebrated on 15-19 Oct 2009.

It’s significance lies in removal of darkness(ignorance) through the means of lights (knowledge). Read more about Diwali.

Deepawali 15-19 Oct 2009

Durga Puja and Dussehra just got over but it’s time to look forward to Diwali (also called Deepavali) festivities.

Deepavali is a festival where people from all age groups participate. They give expression to their happiness by lighting earthen ‘diyas’ (lamps), decorating the houses, bursting firecrackers and inviting near and dear ones to their households for partaking in a sumptuous feast. The lighting of lamps is a way of paying obeisance to god for attainment of health, wealth, knowledge, peace, valor and fame.

It is one time in the whole year that children volunteer to leave their beds long before the day begins. In fact, the traditional oil bath at 3 a.m, is the only chore that stands between them and the pre-dawn adventures. They emerge, scrubbed clean to get into their festive attire, and light up little oil lamps, candles and scented sticks(agarbathis), the wherewithal for setting alight crackers and sparklers.

Who shall set off the first chain of crackers that go boom, bang and vroom? and who is the owner of the 10-minute ‘banger’ that steals the thunder from your little chain of needle-sized crackers? Does the boy next door have more crackers than me?

Competition is stiff, and even the little girl in silk frocks and their finery are watching out for the best sparklers and flowerpots, the rockets and Vishnuchakras, which light-up the night sky like a thousand stars.

Grown-ups are the soul of generosity. Gifts are procured and distributed in abundance to all friends, relatives, and other close acquaintances. Sweets, confectionery, garments, trinkets & jewelry are the preferred gift items. Festive bonhomie abounds.

More information about Diwali – History, Significance, How to celebrate etc. can be found at : http://www.hindilearner.com/diwali.html

Reason : To celebrate victory of good over evil
Date: 19-28 Sep 2009

Durga Puja and Dussehra are two different festivals yet have a common reason behind them. These are clubbed together for the simple reason that most Hindus celebrate both of them and at the same time.

These Hindu festivals are based on legendary tales of victory of good over evil. Dussehra is celebrated to mark the defeat of Ravana by Lord Rama. Durga Puja is celebrated to mark the triumph of warrior Goddess Durga over the buffalo demon, Mahishasura.

Nav-Ratri & Vijay Dasami

The ‘Ramlila‘ – an enactment of the life of Lord Rama, is held during the nine days preceding Dussehra. On the tenth day (Dussehra or Vijay Dasami), larger than life effigies of Ravana, his son and brother -Meghnadh and Kumbhakarna, are set to fire. The theatrical enactments of this dramatic encounter are held throughout the country in which every section of people participate enthusiastically. In burning the effigies the people are asked to burn the evil within them, and thus follow the path of truth and goodness, bearing in mind the instance of Ravana, who despite all his might and majesty was destroyed for his evil ways.

The vibrant festivities of Durga Puja also last for ten days, of which nine nights (Navaratri) are spent in worship - the first three nights are dedicated to the worship of Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and prosperity, the next three nights to Saraswati, Goddess of learning and arts and the last three nights to embodiment of power Shakti (Durga). Beautiful idols of the Goddess are worshiped in elaborate pandals for nine days, and on the tenth day, these are carried out in procession for immersion (visarjan) in a river or lake.

Celebration

Dussehra is celebrated with great fanfare in Kullu, Varanasi, Mysore while Durga puja takes center- stage among people from Bengal and Nepal.

In Himachal Pradesh, a week -long fair in the hill town of Kullu, is a part of the Dussehra celebrations. From the little temples in the hills, deities are brought in procession to the ‘maidan’ in Kullu, to pay homage to the reigning deity, Raghunathji.

In Mysore, Karnataka the Mysore palace is illuminated for a whole month during Dusshera and caparisoned elephants lead a colourful procession through the gaily-decorated streets of the city. It is the most colourful celebration of Dusshera in world.

In Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, families arrange dolls (Bommai Kolu) on artificially constructed steps and prepare an elaborate spread of lamps and flowers. Women traditionally exchange gifts of coconuts, clothes and sweets.

In Punjab, Navaratri is taken as a period of fasting.

In Gujarat, the evenings and nights are occasions for the fascinating Garba dance. The women dance around an earthen lamp while singing devotional songs accompanied by rhythmic clapping of hands.

In Northern India, the festival wears the colourful garb of Ramlila wherein various incidents from Rama’s life are enacted, as is the destruction of Ravana and Bharat Milap, that is the reunion of Ram and his estranged brother Bharat, on the former’s return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile.

Durga Puja and Dussehra are the most popular festivals in India. It is a Hindu festival, which is celebrated all over India. More information on Durga Puja and Dussehra and other Hindu festivals can be found here.

Onam festival is celebrated with gaiety and fervor by people of kerala. Onam festival is celebrated in the beginning of the first month of malyalam calender (kolla varsham) called chingam. Onam festival is celebrated for 10 days and to promote onam internationally, the government of kerala celebrates the festival time as tourist week in kerala.

This year onam festival is from 23rd august 2009 to 2nd september 2009. The tenth and the important day of onam festival is thiruvonam.

The onam festival is celebrated as the harvest celebrations of kerala as well as a welcome festival to the season of spring. Onam festival is celebrated in memory of king mahabali, the king of erstwhile kerala whose ruling is said to be the golden era of keralites.

One of the traditions of onam festival is performance of dance forms that are native to kerala. Another major attraction during onam festival is the snake boat race (vallamkali) conducted at river pampa in kerala. Numerous athapookalam, or floral carpets, a major highlight of onam festival is displayed during athachamayam. Another gala event of onam festival is the thrissur elephant procession.

Onam festival is the biggest festival in kerala. The onam festival is celebrated in kerala, india, by all malayalees regardless of religious differences and caste. Onam festival is an example of religious harmony and provides for family get-together.

Reason : Birthday of Lord Ganesha (or  Gajaanan, Ganapati, Vinayak)
Date: Ganesh Chaturthi in 2009 is on Sunday, the 23rd of Aug.

The much awaited ten-day long festival of Ganesh Chaturthi starts in a few days.

Day-one is marked by the sthapana of the Ganesh idol. The preparations for this begin in advance. The place where the idol is to be kept (puja premises) is cleaned and redecorated. The idol is carried from the market with their faces covered with a saffron cloth amidst chanting and sound of cymbals. By the evening, idol is seated in a majestic splendor in puja premises.

Lord Ganesha

The ceremony begins by placing the idol, usually made of terracotta, in the puja premises. The puja begins at the time designated according to calculations based on the Hindu calendar. The priest performs a ritual by which the idol is said to be imbued with life.

Next follows the traditional puja. The worshippers perform pranayama, bow and prostrate before the Ganesh idol and sip holy water. This follows singing of Ganapati aarti and atharvashirdha with the accompaniment of cymbals, bells and rhythmic clapping. The last rite for the day is offering of ‘modak‘ or prasad to the deity with flowers after which the prasad is distributed to the devotees.

Modak is prepared mostly by women at houses. One of the modaks contains salt inside it. It is believed that Lord Ganesh bestows special blessings on the person who gets the salty modak.

At the end of this ten day celebration, the idols of Lord Ganesh will be taken out of the pooja-mandap and immersed in water. This is known as visarjan. A procession is taken out from pooja mandap till the water point which is generally sea or lake available in the area.

It is worth watching the enthusiasm of people singing and dancing all the way during the procession. It’s somewhat akin to a carnival but with a strong religious flavor and of course no liquor is consumed.