Our spring festival Vasant Pachami and yes there is a reflection in the nature. The cold starts disappearing , the flowers start blooming...
And we wonder how ages and ages back our great and learned sages calculated the dates of the season and even today its almost accurate.
As I stepped into my home on the day of Vasant Panchami when Saraswati Puja is celebrated in the Eastern states of India, the first thing I noticed are these yellow flowers blooming. I had been home(Shillong) this season after many many years however I could not partake in the celebrations because of the travel and other necessities that needed to be catered to.
But the sight of these flowers brought back memories, of childhood...
Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning is revered on this day. The preparations would start from a few days earlier in the neighboring lanes where an idol would be bought and a pandal set up. The children would go around houses and collect contributions which would eventually be needed for the idol, the items for decoration and the prasad.
We celebrated at home, we would fast on that day till the Puja was done. The mornings meant early bath and then decorating the Puja room with the flowers. The flowers had to be yellow or white and a the Acacia flower was bought by Baba and Bhai from outside as we did not grow that at home.
Disclaimer: This pic of the Acacia is borrowed from the internet while the flowers from home are self-clicked.
Once few of our friends also did a community Puja and we made hand written donation slips. We got Prasads contributed by our mothers and aunties as we did not have enough contribution. The fun was beyond words. Recalling those I feel how much the festivals engaged us, brought out our creativity. Children these days are glued to mobiles and TV.
The Puja preparations were done by me and Ma, and after the "Anjali" was performed, we could relish the Prasad.
This day is also the day of "Hathe Kodi", the day a child is formally initiated into education. The parents hold the child's hand and makes the child write something.
Lunch would be Khichuri and Payesh, followed by a little rest and evenings being going around in the locality and seeing all the Pandals. Little girls wearing yellow and green Sarees would be seen fluttering around. Such is the beauty of our festivals.
We never studied on Saraswati Puja, all our books and pens would be placed in the feet of the goddess and next morning we would start the day by writing the name of goddess Saraswati 108 times.
In Delhi we celebrate as well, but the joys of our childhood can perhaps not come back ever.
My story would be incomplete if I did not mention the Saraswati Puja in Bangalore. There were two students from Silchar, Assam who lived in a rented accomodation near college. They also had a cook who was from Silchar and on the day of the Saraswati, all the teachers and most of the friends would be invited and special Khichuri and Payesh would be served. I never went to college on that day and spent the entire day in their place, helping in the preparations and later serving.
Such joy! Such spirit! May it live!
And we wonder how ages and ages back our great and learned sages calculated the dates of the season and even today its almost accurate.
As I stepped into my home on the day of Vasant Panchami when Saraswati Puja is celebrated in the Eastern states of India, the first thing I noticed are these yellow flowers blooming. I had been home(Shillong) this season after many many years however I could not partake in the celebrations because of the travel and other necessities that needed to be catered to.
But the sight of these flowers brought back memories, of childhood...
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| Flowers at our Shillong Home |
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| Flowers at our Shillong Home |
We celebrated at home, we would fast on that day till the Puja was done. The mornings meant early bath and then decorating the Puja room with the flowers. The flowers had to be yellow or white and a the Acacia flower was bought by Baba and Bhai from outside as we did not grow that at home.
Disclaimer: This pic of the Acacia is borrowed from the internet while the flowers from home are self-clicked.
Once few of our friends also did a community Puja and we made hand written donation slips. We got Prasads contributed by our mothers and aunties as we did not have enough contribution. The fun was beyond words. Recalling those I feel how much the festivals engaged us, brought out our creativity. Children these days are glued to mobiles and TV.
The Puja preparations were done by me and Ma, and after the "Anjali" was performed, we could relish the Prasad.
This day is also the day of "Hathe Kodi", the day a child is formally initiated into education. The parents hold the child's hand and makes the child write something.
Lunch would be Khichuri and Payesh, followed by a little rest and evenings being going around in the locality and seeing all the Pandals. Little girls wearing yellow and green Sarees would be seen fluttering around. Such is the beauty of our festivals.
We never studied on Saraswati Puja, all our books and pens would be placed in the feet of the goddess and next morning we would start the day by writing the name of goddess Saraswati 108 times.
In Delhi we celebrate as well, but the joys of our childhood can perhaps not come back ever.
My story would be incomplete if I did not mention the Saraswati Puja in Bangalore. There were two students from Silchar, Assam who lived in a rented accomodation near college. They also had a cook who was from Silchar and on the day of the Saraswati, all the teachers and most of the friends would be invited and special Khichuri and Payesh would be served. I never went to college on that day and spent the entire day in their place, helping in the preparations and later serving.
Such joy! Such spirit! May it live!
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| Saraswati idol at Delhi |
