It used to be common practice in India to celebrate Sri Krishna Janmastami for EIGHT days, instead of one or two days when the Lord was born. Today this tradition is mostly only practised in Fiji, and some parts of Uttar Pradesh, around the Vrindavana and Mathura, in small village areas. So what is the reason that we celebrate Janmastami for 8 days? On the day of Raksha Bandhan (Balarama Purnima), Lord Krishnas elder brother Balrama was born, just 8 days before Lord Vishnu incarnated as Krishna. Originally nobody knew when Lord Krishna was born, until according to the Bhagavatam Krishna told the people of Mathura, and the first Janmastami was celebrated in Mathura 5,200+ years ago, then Krishna devotees from around the world begun celebrating. When the Lord incarnates, the duty of the devotees become to PURIFY the planet for his arrival, thus we must create a mood of the Lords coming, so we clean our homes, and celebrate 8 days prior to the Lords incarnation. In other words, we are so happy that the Lord is incarnating that we sing, dance and celebrate to welcome him onto this planet BEFORE he is even born. We celebrate from Balaramas birth to Krishnas birth, the climax of our celebrations happens at midnight of the day of Janmastami when Krishna was born. Due to pure laziness the 8 day tradition has been put aside throughout most of India, these traditions became vanishing as early as the 1700s throughout Western India, although some Gujarati communities still practice it. By the 1900s only Uttar Pradeshis celebrated for 8 days, the majority of labourers to Fiji were in fact from UP, and due to our isolation from the rest of India, we managed to preserve this tradition. And that was the best explanation I could give as to why Fijian Hindus celebrate Janmastami for 8 days.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 02:20:46 +0000
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