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THE PEOPLE
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FEAST AND FESTIVALS
Hindus: Hindu life, particularly among the high castes, is replete with celebrations of all kinds. There are holidays and other religious festivals and birthday anniversaries of gods and mythological heroes. There are other occasional ceremonies evoking special forms of worship and sacrificial offerings. They include ceremonies to obtain or to avert rain, hail-storms or floods and to prevent epidemics or cattle diseases etc. So also, there are many ceremonies and good works by which punya (spiritual merit) may be acquired such as performance of yatra, homa, Satyanarayan and Satyavinayak pujas, construction of temples, digging of wells and ranks, building and dedication of dharmashalas and annasatras, planting of mango-groves and so forth. There are also propitiatory ceremonies in which the aid of spirits is solicited for the successful performance of rites of marriage, birth and death.
Every year, a Hindu generally goes through a cycle of feasts and festivals known as the Gudhi Padva, Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Maha Ekadashi (Ashadhi and Kartiki), Gokulashtami, Pola, Ganesh Chaturthi, Gauripujana, Dasara, Divali and Holi.
A number of ceremonies of the nature of vratas (vows) and propitiatory worships mostly restricted to Brahman women occur throughout the year. In the month of Chaitra starting from the bright third and on a convenient day, suvasinis hold in their homes the ceremony of haladikunku. The full-moon day of Jyestha known as Vatapaurnima is observed by married women as a day of prayer so that the lives of their husbands may be prolonged; a banyan tree or its branches are worshipped and vayans (special offerings) are distributed among Brahmans and suvasinis. Some observe a vrata for three days during which they live on fruits, tubers and milk only. During Chaturmasa (four months of the rainy season) some women observe the sola somwar vrata (vow observed on sixteen successive Mondays) at the end of which they hold a grand worship of Shiva and Parvati and feast 17 dampatyas (couples). Similarly married girls vow to offer Shivamooth. (handful of corn) to God Shiva every Monday of Shravana. For the first five years, newly-married girls worship Mangalagauri every Tuesday in Shravana. The Fridays of the same month which go by the name of Sampad Shukravars (prosperous Fridays) are observed by women with a worship of Goddess Lakshmi
drawn on a small earthen pot. On the third and fifth of bright Bhadrapada come Haratalika and Rishipanchami which arc observed as days of fast by Brahman women. The first is kept by married women and young girls in honour of Haratalika (Goddess Parvati) who is said to have successfully resisted her father's wish to marry her to God Vishnu and married God Shiva whom she loved. The second is observed by elderly women in honour of rishis (sages) to make amends for sins committed unconsciously. That day, they do not cat anything that is produced by the labour of cattle or any other animal but eat only hand-grown fruits and vegetables. Vasubaras is observed by some women; it falls on the 12th of Ashwin for the welfare of their children. The day previous to Sankranta in the month of Pausha is called Bhogi on which a special dish known as khichadi is offered to gods and eaten. On the Sankranta day, sugads (auspicious earthen pots) are presented to Brahmans and the following day known as Kinkranta is celebrated by newly-married girls with lutane, a free distribution to suvasinis of some useful article.
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