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The Story of Dussehra
Dussehra, also called Vijayadashmi (or Bijoya in Bengal), is the culmination of the nine-day Navaratri celebrations. It is a festival that marks the killing of Ravana, his son Meghanatha and brother Kumbhakarna, by Rama. It is seen as the vistory of good over evil The Ramayana The epic Ramayana, describes the story of Rama. Rama was the exiled prince of the kingdom of Ayodhya. While in exile, he lived in the forest with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana....
Makar Sankranti
The colourful kite-flying festival of Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan, which falls on January 14 each year, marks the end of a long winter and the return of the sun to the northern hemisphere. Hence the name Uttarayan. According to Hindu astronomy, it is on this holiest day in the Hindu calendar, that the sun enters the zodiac of Makara or Capricorn, heralding the northern journey of the sun. The day is also of special significance, because on this day, the day and night are of equal hours....
Gurpurab – the birth of Guru Nanak
The Birthday of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is traditionally celebrated on Kartik Puranmashi, or the full moon day of the month of Kartik. According to the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Guru Nanak Sahib was born on 15th April, 1469 at Rai-Bhoi-di Talwandi in the present district of Shekhupura, now Nanakana Sahib in Pakistan. Since the birthday falls on the full moon day of the month Kartik, that is the day that Sikhs all over the world celebrate the birth of their first guru....
The Story of Diwali
Deepavali or Diwali as it has come to be known as, means many things to many people. It means holidays from school, shopping expeditions for clothes, sweets, gifts and crackers to children. To the office-goer it means an annual bonus that can make all this happen. To the businessman Diwali means brisk business just as to the clay potter, Diwali is the occasion of the year when the bulk of his sales are made. Diwali has a special significance for the trading communities of India who usher in their new year and new accounting books (‘bahi khata’) during this time....
Rediscovering a Smoke-less Diwali
Think of Diwali and firecrackers start exploding in the mind – that is how strong the association of crackers is with the festival of lights. Legend has it that on Diwali, the sound of firecrackers resounds through the universe, announcing the homecoming of Lord Rama after a long period of exile. Another legend says that people began exploding crackers to convey to the gods, their joy at being alive and well on earth. Rediscovering a Smoke-less Diwali [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Now come back to the present when the uncontrolled celebration of the victory of good over evil itself seems to have become a source of pollution....
Holi in Fiji
March 19: Before it was Holi in India, phagua, as Holi is called by the Indo-Fijians, was already being celebrated. The Fiji Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, are six-and-a-half hours ahead of Indian time and the Indo-Fijians were already singing chautal, an oral tradition of celebration. For the community, memories of India go as far back as 120 years, when the first batch of Indians in colonial India, were taken to Fiji, also a British colony, as labour....
Janamashtmi – The Day Krishna was Born
Janamashtmi, or the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna — the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu — is celebrated with traditional gaiety and fervour all over India. It falls on the eighth day of the waning moon in the month of Shravan in August/ September. Lord Krishna is believed to have been born at midnight on this day. The day is marked by fasting, feasting, dancing and singing hymns and prayers. Lord Vishnu is invoked in his human incarnation as Krishna on his birth anniversary....
Was Christmas Celebrated Thousands of Years before Christ's Birth?
Did you know that the celebrations at Christmas might have nothing to do with the birth of Christ? In fact they may well lie in a feast called Sacaea that was celebrated thousands of years before Christ’s birth. Over 4000 years ago, in the region that is now Iraq, a five-day festival with the exchanges of gifts, the staging of plays, accompanied by merry making and processions, marked the end of winter and ushered in the New Year....
Holi is For Children
Kamla Mathur was born and brought up in Etah, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. Now, at 65, she lives in Delhi and reminisces fondly of the Holi she and her siblings celebrated at ‘home’, in the area called Brajbhoomi, the land where the Braj dialect of Hindi is spoken. Brajbhoomi refers to the places connected to the legends of the birth and childhood of Krishna and his dalliance with Radha. As Holi continues to be a significant festival for the Brajvasis, many of the old ways of celebration survive....
The Business of Festivals
What is special about Durga Puja is that it’s a community celebration. In Calcutta, specially, almost every neighbourhood has a Puja Committee to organise the Puja in their locality, every year. Come September and the Committee members begin to meet at each other’s houses and chalk out plans for grand celebrations over endless rounds of cha(tea) and adda (discussion). Anyone can qualify – all one needs is boundless enthusiasm. These people set up the pandal or the tents that house the festivities....
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