Group Cohesion
One of the distinctive features of Karaga is the participation in this festival by people of all creeds and communities.The Karaga is a representative of the deity in the temple. The icon in the temple is fixed permanently. By taking a "copy" of the icon in the streets, the deity is brought to the people at their own doorstep. When people see the deity, the deity also sees them. This is considered to be a form of blessing from the divine.
The cooked rice, given free to anyone who wants some, is sponsored by various local merchants and other families. These acts of public service promote cooperation among people. They also support the Karaga festival by taking care of the people attending so they don’t have to leave the festival to go home because they feel hungry..
Read more about this topic: Bangalore Karaga
Famous quotes containing the words group and/or cohesion:
“Unless a group of workers know their work is under surveillance, that they are being rated as fairly as human beings, with the fallibility that goes with human judgment, can rate them, and that at least an attempt is made to measure their worth to an organization in relative terms, they are likely to sink back on length of service as the sole reason for retention and promotion.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877?)
“The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mindthe mind of a fighterin which the virtues of tribal cohesion and fierceness and infantile credulity and malleability are paramount. Thus every new beginning recapitulates in some degree mans first beginning.”
—Eric Hoffer (19021983)