Festival of lights gets a traditional twist. Thane: Colourful lanterns, delicately decorated diyas and mouth-watering sweets adorned each and every household of the lake city on Thursday. Every family—be it nuclear or joint—came together in the evening and joined in the Laxmi Puja. Siddhi Trivedi (21) celebrates the festival in a very traditional manner. My family places a kalash filled with water, supari, haldi and kumkum and keeps it near the door. After this, we worship Lord Ganesh and then we bathe it with milk, dahi and rice water. Once we are done offering prayers to Lord Ganesh, we perform the same ritual with Goddess Lakshmi by keeping a yellow cloth. Yellow is supposed to be the favourite colour of the goddess. We then light diyas and keep it in front of the door, which is left ajar to welcome the goddess, said Trivedi. Each community has a different tradition and belief to celebrate the festival. North Indians celebrate it by remembering Lord Rams return to Ayodhya after defeating Ravan. We usually have the enactment of the Ramleela and then there is dance, music and distribution of sweets, said Babu Awastha, a taxi driver. For Bengalis, Diwali is associated with Goddess Kali as this day marks the victory over the demon Raktasura. Goddess Kali, the embodiment of Shakti and the first of 10 avatars of Goddess Durga, is worshipped by the community with great fervor. We start a day early by cooking choddo-shaak (14 types of leafy vegetables), lighting 14 diyas (some say, to ward off evils spirits while others do it to honour their ancestors), drawing alpona or wet rangolis in white at our doorsteps and homes, said Piu Mitra from Khopat. Devotees fast for the day before worshipping Kali at midnight (October 23). Kali puja or Deepannwita Puja takes place on a new moon night of Kartik Amavasya. Traditional Begali families keep a fast throughout the day and worship the goddess throughout the night. Diyas are lit after sunset and sweets are distributed and eaten after the puja. Although we live in a nuclear family, we try to keep the tradition alive, said Rita Bandyopadhyay, a social worker. More : timesofindia.indiatimes/city/thane/Festival-of-lights-gets-a-traditional-twist/articleshow/44919243.cms
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 05:27:29 +0000
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