HOLY DAYS THAT AMERICA’S
HINDUS CELEBRATE
Hindu New Year
Let’s Celebrate Springtime!
New Year is celebrated with gaiety and pomp around
the world
wherever
Hindus live, but not on January 1. India’s ancient faith
salutes
the annual genesis at the start of spring, when nature
comes
to life, in mid-April. The festival has a different name in each regional
language;
Baisakhi, Vishu, Varusha Pirappu, Ugadi, Badi Deepavali
and
Bestu Varas are just a few. Homes are lit with oil lamps and decorated
with
fl owers to attract blessings.
Why is New Year
celebrated in April?
Like
most ancient cultures, Hindus traditionally
observe
the start of each new year with
the
arrival of spring, which occurs
in
mid-April in South Asia. That day
coincides
with the Sun’s entrance into
the
constellation Mesha (Aries), the
fi
rst sign in Hindu astrology. Following
this
astrological calculation, the
celebration
falls on April 14 in most
years.
How is the New Year
celebrated?
Hindus
don new clothes, exchange
sweets,
gifts and greetings of goodwill.
They
clean their homes and decorate
the
entrance and shrine room with
beautiful,
colorful patterns called kolam
or
rangoli, symbols of auspiciousness.
They
visit temples, beseeching
God
and the Gods for blessings for the
year
ahead. The Goddess Lakshmi and
the
elephant-headed God Ganesha
are
especially venerated on this day. In
some
communities, elders give money
to
youth and children as a token of
good
luck—making the year’s fi rst fi nancial
act
selfl ess and thus auspicious. Families feast
together
with great revelry, enjoying elaborate
dishes
and good company. People gather to
listen
to interpretations of the star’s positions
and
auguries of things to come, for in this culture
the
Hindu calendar is closely interwoven
with
astrology. An elder or a learned astrologer
may
read the family’s fortune for the next 12
months.
Predictions are even given on Indian
television.
What is the “fi rst
seeing” tradition?
In
South Indian families, a dazzling arrangement
called
kani is created in the home on
New
Year’s Eve. It is a display of money, jewels
and
clothing, plants and fl owers, fruits and
sweets,
in the center of which stands a shrine
with
Hindu Deities. At dawn on New
Year’s
Day, the matriarch wakes up the
family
members one by one and blindfolds
them.
She guides them to the
shrine
and there removes the blindfold,
assuring
that their fi rst sight of the year
is
the auspicious, gleaming kani. One of
the
beautiful things to see is a mirror,
which
serves a dual purpose: it symbolically
doubles
the abundance and
refl
ects the family with all the signs of
wealth
around them—an elegant catalyst
to
manifestation!
Are there other dates
for New Year?
Several
other dates are observed by various
communities.
Particularly in North
India,
many celebrate New Year on the
day
after Diwali, the September-October
festival
of lights, which signifi es
hope
and new beginnings. Still, nearly
everyone
joins in the celebrations in
mid-April.
Tidbits About the Hindu New Year
What is the nature of
the Hindu calendar?
The
sacred Hindu calendar, called
panchangam, is an almanac containing astronomical
details
such as sunrise, moonrise, starrise,
eclipses
and lunar phases. It also provides
astrological
information, including auspicious
times
for various activities, and inauspicious
times
as well. The rishis of old imparted the
means
to calculate this information to help
people
navigate the ebbs and fl ows of cosmic
energies.
What
part do neem leaves play?
The
bitter
leaves and fl owers of the neem tree
(Azadirachta
indica) are among the central
items
of New Year celebrations. They are used
in
food dishes, in decorations and on the kani
display.
Neem is a sacred plant, a botanical
marvel
with numerous medicinal uses. It is
said
that its bitterness, spread among the glittering
opulence
of the New Year’s festivities,
adds
a more realistic perspective on life.
Payasam
This
milk-based pudding is immensely
popular
and so easy to make.
Preparation
time: 5 minutes
Cooking
time: 25 minutes
Serves:
6
Cooking
equipment: A heavybottomed
saucepan,
a ladle, a dish.
Ingredients
1
cup vermicelli or sago,
4½
cups milk, 1 cup sugar,
1/2
tsp cardamom powder,
5–6
tbsp chopped cashews and/or
almonds,
4 tbsp raisins,
1
½ tsp ghee, pinch saffron
Method
1.
Heat the milk gently until hot but
not
boiling.
2.
Sauté the cashews, almonds and
raisins
in half the ghee. Set aside.
3.
Sauté the vermicelli or sago in
remaining
ghee for a few minutes.
4.
Add a little of the hot milk to the
vermicelli
or sago; lower the heat.
Drain
excess water.
5.
Add the saffron to the rest of the
milk,
and add it gradually to the
vermicelli
or sago, stirring until the
pasta
becomes translucent and soft.
Cook
until milk thickens.
6.
Add the sugar and stir until it
dissolves.
Turn off heat.
7.
Garnish with powdered
cardamom,
fried nuts, raisins
and
a few strands of saffron.
Om
Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya Subramuniyaswami ji, Hinduism
Today dot com for the collection)
(The Blog is reverently for all the seekers of truth, lovers
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