Menoculayshunal; Flurry Of Fests

As mentioned in the previous two posts, festivals are many in India, and at Sandeepany, we covered a fair few of them. The simple fact is, every possible deity can have a festival day, then there are 'events days' such as Raksha Bandhan when the brother vows to protect his sister, and Bhai Dooj when the sister vows to protect her brother. There are days for parents, teachers, and saints such as Adi Shankara and the national days, January 26th (Republic Day) and August 15th (Independence Day).

There is a whole flush of festival days in the later months of the year. You have been introduced to Onam, Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi. Here is a round-up of a few others which came to brighten up the intensity of studies. 

Following Chaturthi comes Navratri, the nine nights of the Goddess. The murti gets dressed in a different colour of sari for each day. Preparing the silks for dressing takes quite a bit of time and effort but is always a joy and a team effort. Every day, different customs and ceremonies are performed, and the cycle of life for women is celebrated.

Then, along comes Deepavali (aka Diwali), the festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists. It is a five-day celebration, again with different customs for each day but known mostly for the rows of oil lamps lit all around homes and halls. 

Nowadays, there is much use of strands of electric lights and 'battery candles' in place of the traditional clay diyas. It can get quite garish! 

Interestingly, we also celebrated Christmas that first year at the ashram. (The following year, Hanukkah was recognised.) I was invited to organise all the proceedings, which was an honour and fun and an introduction to advanced diplomacy!!! Not everyone wished to be part of it. Of those that did, some were overseas Indians who knew and understood the story, but a surprising number had no real idea at all. Apart from the obligatory introduction to carol singing, we also performed a half-hour shadowplay, for which I created several cut-out figurines and labelled them in order of requirement for the show run. The young ones did me proud! (No photos of the performance, I'm sorry to say.)

Two larger festivals of the early months of the year I shall be taking separately. But others of important note through those months include Makara Sankranti and Pongal, Vasant, Baisakhi... Hanuman Jayanti and the festival of colours, Holi