Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Bunch of Celebrations

It was a great festive season. Full of colors, lights, sweets and pooja.

All started with Dushera. The festival symbolizing triumph of truth over evil. Children enjoyed the colorful Ramayana and the sight of Ravana being burnt.


All jolliness and colors continued with Navratras. The nine day ritual for durga pooja. As it started, everyone was suddenly smiling with the feeling that season of festivals has started. Goddess durga showered her blessings. This year I was quite impressed that some people did the ritual of immersing Durga in rivers in ecofriendly way. Though the waste was still there, but the hope has begun that mass is awakening.


Then came the spring of Love - Karvachauth. Some say that it does not make any sense but what I feel is that may be in the name of ritual, couples get cozy and get a chance to show their love towards each other in harmless manner. All women looked stunning dressed in their best attires and some husbands went an extra edge to fast along with their better halves. The feeling of looking at moon together and then each other eyes through chalni is just so pure.


Following came Dhan Teras. The day is considered auspicious for buying gold. But my grand ma said that they used to buy any metal on this day. Generally it used to be in the form of utensil for kitchen.

Then followed the biggest festival if India - Diwali. Everyone had started preparing for it well in advance. Some renovated their houses, other's cleaned them and decorated in tradition. Everyone exchanged gifts and happiness. Many doors were decorated with beautiful rangolis and little footsteps of Goddess Laxmi. Post Laxmi Pooja began celebration of children. All sorts of crackers and sky was full of colorful lights.


Then the mood had not even started fading, Lord Krishna came with Govardhan Pooja. I had a funny story related to this. In our childhood, my grandma used to make govardhan with cow dung and place a bed above it. She used to say that if we sleep on that bed before pooja in the evening, Govardhan will come in our dreams and hit us hard by a stick. We used to fear a lot with this and did not even dared to sit o that bed. :)

The season ended with Bhai Dooj. Brothers showered gifts on their beloved sisters....