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INDEPENDENCE CALENDAR FESTIVAL AND PILOTS

HOLIDAYS

The celebration of the holidays depends  In India from time and place. It is a question of different ways of calculating whether a Gregorian solar calendar or some other solar calendar is used.   or whether a monthly calendar is used. The same celebrations are not celebrated everywhere either. Several festivals are related to agriculture, the coming of spring, the end of the rainy season, the beginning of winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pongal

A three-day harvest festival in South India around mid-January. Festive dishes include cooking rice in milk. When the milk boils over, shouts "Pongal o pongal" = Let the joy overflow.

Shivaratri

The celebration is celebrated annually throughout India as the wedding celebration of Shiva and Parvat. The celebration is considered the most significant calendar festival in February-March during the New Moon.

Holi

Holia is celebrated in northern India as a spring festival, in March-April on the day of  caitra moon dark  half turns up. However, the festivities begin on the last day of the full moon.

The content of the celebration is the attempt of the female demon Hol to burn her brother Prahlad, who was the successor of Vishnu. However, Vishnu saved his brother and now at the party Holika's statue is burned in a large rovio.

Holi is also a colorful celebration dedicated to Krishna-God, where participants enjoy bhang cannabis and throw  dyed water and toners defiantly behaving on top of each other.Hol's color is red, which symbolizes love. On this single day of the year, girls can visit their secret loved one and throw red powder on her

Gangaur

A feast of the god Parvati, celebrated sixteen days after Hol

Naga Panchami

This feast at the turn of July-August is dedicated to the old snake gods. Then the snakes come up. Snake symbols are painted and painted on both sides of the doorways in the houses.

Photo: Srivatsan   CC BY - SA 3.0

Ganesh Chaturthi

A celebration in August-September dedicated to Ganesha, the elephant-headed God who brings happiness and success. This celebration is especially celebrated in Mumbai, or Bombay, where insane numbers of Ganesha statues of various sizes are thrown into the water.

Navaratri

This nine-night celebration is dedicated to Durga and is celebrated in September-October. People shape statues of Durga out of clay, which are then subjected to prayers for nine days, after which they are thrown into the water. The tenth day celebrates the victory of good over evil. The name of the party is Dussehra. The celebration is usually in October-November. This celebration will be followed by Laksmi-puja during the next full moon and  when the moon is down, Kali-puja is celebrated.

Diwali

The celebration of light begins the new year in some parts of India. It is celebrated for several days by lighting lamps and various candlesticks in the log-November the night before November. The party is combined  to the two Gods Laksmi, the giver of wealth, and Rama, whose return from exile is to be celebrated. 

Pilgrimages

Why go on a pilgrimage?

 

Hinduism does not impose any mandatory pilgrimage on its supporters, anywhere. It is up to the Hindu to decide where and why he wants to make the pilgrimage. Often the reason can be spiritual and spiritual growth, for which it may be necessary to break away from everyday life. There are many reasons: Someone may have given a spiritual  a promise to God because he has broken a religious law, an expression of gratitude, e.g., for a job or a child, to amass good karma. The pilgrimage can also be done on behalf of someone else. Others want to be of their own chosen divinity near holy places or temples and receive a blessing.

Pilgrimage sites

Targets can be rivers, mountains, temples.

 

The Himalayas are believed to be the Himalayan god itself. The Kailas Mountains are sanctified by the Shiva god as he meditates there. The sacred rivers are: Indus, Godavari, Narmada, Jumna, Saraswati, Kauveri and especially important  Ganges. The water of the Ganges is believed to purify man from bad karma and the pilgrimage here also gives the blessing of the Shiva god. Anyone who dies here on the shores of the Ganges in Varanas will surely be released from the wheel of samsara. Varanas is especially sacred because it is located at the confluence of the two rivers Varuna and Ganges.

24 important places of pilgrimage: The most important are  the residences of the gods: Jaganath temple in Puri, Ramesvaram, Dwarka and Badrinath in the Himalayas.

Mount Kailas in the Himalayas   Picture:   CC BY - SA 3.0

References: Grönblom Rolf (2001)  Indian religions, outlook on life and society                        (p.127) Helsinki Schilds Kustannus OY   

              Dwyer Rachel, Hindu (2009)  (  p.22-23), Keuruu Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava

              Keene Michael (2002) The Great Religions of the World (pp.34-35) WSOY 

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