Panchami - Festivals

Festivals

  • Nag Panchami is a Hindu festival celebrated by Hindus in most parts of India. It is celebrated in Shravan month. On this day, people worship Nāga Devata (Cobras). People go to temples and snake pits and worship the snakes. They offer milk and silver jewelry to the Cobras to protect them from all evils. They also fast. This festival is to celebrate the day Lord Krishna defeated the serpent Kalia. On this day swings are put up in the village and people enjoy themselves. The married girls visit their parents during this occasion.
  • Vasant Panchami or Shree Panchami is a Hindu festival celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art. It is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the Indian month Magh (January–February), the first day of spring. Traditionally during this festival children are taught to write their first words; Brahmins are fed; ancestor worship (Pitr-tarpan) is performed; the god of love Kamadeva is worshipped; and most educational institutions organise special prayer for Saraswati. The color yellow also plays an important role in this festival, in that people usually wear yellow garments, Saraswati is worshipped dressed in yellow, and yellow sweets are consumed within the families.

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Famous quotes containing the word festivals:

    “This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
    —Doris Lessing (b. 1919)

    “Why wont they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, cant they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping—rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year’s and Easter and Christmas—But, goodness, why need they do it?”
    —John Dos Passos (1896–1970)