Q for Queer Facts - Festivals of India

Bhagoriya Festival (MP)

Queer Facts:

Writing on Festivals of India has led to some astonishing revelations. No doubt we know that India is a land of diversity and so does appear in all its aspects. I was astonished with the number of festivals that I came across.

If I say there is more number of festivals than the number of days in the year – I would not be wrong.  To summarise I have tried to put it as following 10 points.

There are - 

Festivals to celebrate all relationship:

Husband – wife relationship: Teej (Hariyali Teej, Hartalika teej &Kajri teej), Karva Chauth, Vat Savitri Puja.

Son’s longevity – Jivitya ot Jitiya

Brother – Sister Relationship – Bhai Dooj, Raksha Bandhan

Entire Family - Chhatha

Festival to celebrate Harvest Season : 

Makar Sankranti (North), Pongal (Tamil Nadu), Onam (Kerala), Bihu (Assam), Zagor(Goa), Wangal (Meghalaya), Lohri (Punjab), Satuani( Bihar), Baisakhi (Punjab), Min Kut (Mizoram), Sekrenyi (Nagaland), Tsukhenyi (Chakesang Nagas), Pongtu Kuh Festival, (Arunachal Pradesh),

Festivals to worship Flora & Fauna: Nag Panchmi (Snake), Govardhan Puja, Chhath (Sun), Karva Chauth (Moon), Thai Pusam (related to Pusam star ), Ganga Snan (Bath in River Ganga), Animal Weddings normally frogs in different parts of India for appeasing Rain God, Ambubachi Mela, Assam, Fertility of Mother nature and tantrik means festival, Mattu Pongal

Ambubachi Mela

Vat SDavitri Puja ( worship of Banyan tree)

Birth Celebrations :Ram Navmi, Krishna Janmashtmi, Shiv Ratri, Chitragupta Puja, Mahaveer Jayanti, Budh Poornima, Hanuman Jayanti, Saraswati Puja, Christmas, Guru Poornima etc. Valmiki Jayanti, Lakshmi Puja, Guru Gobind Jayanti, Guru Nanak jayanti, Guru Parv, Hemis Festival (Buddhism)

Hemis Festival- laddakh

National & Regional Fairs : Kumbh Mela, Simhastha, Rath Yatra, Ram Barat, Shrawan Mela, Kanwar Mela, Sonepur Mela (largest Animal Fair), Pushkar Mela (Camel Fair), Vautha Mela, Gujarat (trading of donkeys), Minjar Festival, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, Gauchar Mela, Garhwal, Uttarakhand, Dhinga Gavar festival,  Rajasthan, Karni Mata - Mice feeding festival (Bikaner)

Minjar - Chamba (HP)

Festivals with Day wise importance: Akshay Tritiya, Dhanteras, Narak Chaudas, Ekadashi, Poornima (Full Moon Night), Amavasya (No Moon Night); Eid, Bakra – id, Easter, Brihaspati devta Vrat (Thursday), Santoshi Mata Vrat (Friday), Santan Ashtmi, Vaibhav Lakshmi (Friday), Hanuman Ji Vrat , (Tuesday), Shani Vrat ( Saturday), Ganesh Chaturthi, Anant Chaturdashi, Mauni Amavasya, Dev Uthan Ekadashi, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Kartik Poornima, Losar (Laddakh’s New Year Festival)

Santoshi Maa Vrat

National Festivals : Independence Day, Republic Day, Bapu’s birthday, Quit India Day, Ambedkar Jayanti.

International Festivals: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, New Year, Children’s Day, Labour Day, Teacher’s day, Women’s Day etc.

Festival to remember Dead Souls: Ulambana (Buddhism), Shabe Barat (Muslims), Pitrapaksha (Hinduism), Shraadh (Hinduism)

Shab - e - barat

Festivals as per season: Shravan (Monsoon), Vasant Panchmi (Autumn), Kajri Teej (Rainy), Bohaggiyo Bishu Festival, Assam (spring)

Thematic and Mythological Reference:  Holi, Diwali, Dussehra, Navratra, Durga Puja, Dawat Puja, Vishwakarma Puja, Holika Dahan, Kshamavani (Jainism); Muharram, 

Vishwakarma - The God of Engineering

Tribal Festivals: Madai Festival (Bastar), Wangal (Garo tribe), Bhagoria festival – Bhils of MP with tradition of eloping with would be wife, Karma (Bihar, MP, Orissa), Sume Gelirak festival (Orissa – sacrificing birds & animals), Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, Telangana, fight of a mother and daughter against unjust law, Bija Pandu festival, Odisha, Made Made Snana, Karnataka (Rolling over left over food) Agni Keli, Karnataka, Aadi festival, Tamil Nadu breaking coconut on head, Tossing infants from the roof for good luck – Maharashtra and Karnataka ( Baba Umer Daragah, Sholapur) , Behdienkhlam, Meghalaya, Bani Festival, Andhra Pradesh, beating on head with lathi.

Karma - Chhotanagpur - Bihar

Fun Festival: Jallikattu (Taming of Bull), Holi (Festival of Colours); Thimithi (Fire walking), Kila Raipur Rural Olympics, (Punjab), Pulli Kali (Lion Dance festival), Dree Festival, Arunachal Pradesh sacrifice of animal & birds, Lath Mar Holi - Braj

Dree Festival

These are just some and can go on unending as we research more and more .

Aditya Sinha

20.04.2016

That’s for today with Q. Tomorrow it would be another festival with “R”
List of Other Festivals : Anant Chaturdashi, Akshay Tritiya ,Buddha Purnima, Basant Panchmi, Baisakhi,  Chhatha, Diwali/Deepawali, Easter, Festival of Breaking Fast - Eid ul Fitr, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Id-ul-Zoha or Bakra-Eid , Janmashtmi , Karva Chauth, Lohri, Mahavir Jayanti, Nag Panchmi, Onam, Pongal ,  Queer Facts , Ramnavmi , Simhastha, Teej, Ullambana or Ghost Festival, Vijaydashmi , Wangala, Xmas, Yamdvitiya, Zagor

For my parallel second Challenge blog with A pls visit : Let the Soul Pour

For other A to Z challenge blogs visit : A to Z Challenge 2016

Q for Queer facts and beliefs

This post is written for A to Z Challenge.

Q for Queer facts and beliefs

Today I would talk about three temples which had left me awe struck with some stories or phenomenon linked and that keeps one pondering. I have already mentioned about one i.e. Jwalaji in my last post on Shakti Peeths. The other two are Bijli Mahadev Temple and Manikaran.

Jwalaji: The fact that it is one of the Shakti Peeth where burning tongue of Sati fell is good enough to make it sacred. 

Jwala Ji temple

But I was amazed with the continuous flame that is burning from the walls of the small rectangular pit in the main temple. There are small flames coming from other areas in the wall too. These are just small flames like a candle burning. - And goes on continuously. If scientist say it is a source of Natural Gas, I agree – but why this is only a small flame burning and not given way to a fire. Where is the source? It’s really amazing and awful.

Bijli Mahadev Temple: This temple devoted to Lord Shiva lies in Kullu district approx. 22 km from main Kullu town across the river Beas. 

Bijli Mahadev

One can reach up to Chansari village by local bus from Kullu or by road and from where one had to trek for a distance of 3 km uphill to Kashwari at a height of approx. 2500 m.

Bijli Mahadev temple

In this temple of lightning, it is said that the tall staff attracts the divine blessings in the form of lightning to save the earth. Shiva in the form of Shiva LInga absorbs the lightning and breaks into pieces and scatters. The priest then gets a dream in which he comes to know the exact location of these pieces. Then he has to restore the Shiva linga placed inside the temple using butter and sattoo. 

Shiv Linga at Bijli Mahadev

This happens after every lightning as it shatters Linga to pieces with flash of lightning.

Bijli Mahadev

The 60 feet high staff of Bijli Mahadev temple glistens like a silver needle in the sun. The top also provides a majestic valley of the parvati valley below and the Kullu city.

Manikaran: Manikaran is located in the Parvati Valley between the rivers Beas and Parvati, northeast of Bhuntar in the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh. It is at an altitude of 1760 m and is located about 45 km from Kullu.One has to divert from Bhunter to Kasol – Manikaran route from main NH at Bhunter if you are coming from Mandi. Its just 3 kms from Kasol (the Israel city in India). The view is just mesmerizing. Manikaran is famous for the hot water Sulphur Spring. I have seen sulphur springs – many of them, But normally they are small springs or outlets with reasonably warm water. One would be astonished to see boiling hot water here virtually jutting out throughout the area. There is a Gurudwara and a Shiva temple in the same complex on the banks of river Parvati. The Rice for the food served in the Langar is prepared by just keeping the earthen pot in the kund in the Gurudwara. As a Prasad you can take raw rice / gram from the temple and leave this submerged in the kund – by the time you return after visit – the rice / gram is cooked. All along the Temple where Parvati river touches this area the water is boiling which otherwise is ice cold. Its amazing – I hadn’t seen such hot water source.

Manikaran entrance with Shiv Temple

Manikaran is a pilgrimage centre for both Hindus and Sikhs. The Hindus believe that Manu recreated human life in Manikaran after the flood, making it a sacred area. It has many temples and a gurudwara There are temples of the Hindu deities Rama, Krishna, and Vishnu. .

According to legend, when the Shiva and Parvati were walking in the valley, Parvati dropped one of her earrings. The jewel was seized by Shesha Nag which disappeared into the earth with it. Shiva performed Tandav to make Shesha nag surrender the jewel and shot the jewel up through the water. Apparently, jewels continued to be thrown up in the waters at Manikaran until the earthquake of 1905.

According to the Sikhs, during third Udasi, the founder of Sikhism Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji came to this place with his disciple Bhai Mardana. Mardana felt hungry and they had no food. Guru Nanak sent Mardana to collect food for the langar. Many people donated atta to make Roti (bread). The one problem was that there was no fire to cook the food. Guru Nanak asked Mardana to lift a stone and he complied and a hot spring appeared. As directed by Guru Nanak, Mardana put the rolled chapatis in the spring to his despair the chapatis sank. Guru Nanak then told him to pray to God saying that if his chapatis float back then he would donate one chapati in His name. When he prayed all the chapatis started floating duly baked. Guru Nanak said that anyone who donates in the name of God, his drowned items float back.

The pots containing rice for langar immersed in Hot water for being cooked

Another belief says that when the lost jewel of Parvati could not be found Shiva got angry and opened his third eye, a tremendously inauspicious event which led to disturbances in the universe. Then an appeal was made before the serpent god, Sheshnag, to pacify Lord Shiva. Sheshnag hissed thereby giving rise to a flow of boiling water. The water spread over the entire area resulting in the emergence of precious stones of the type Goddess Parvati had lost. Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati were happy at the outcome.

The Gurudwara visible from Mandir . Also see the fumes of hot water

The name Manikaran is derived from this legend. The water is still hot and is considered extremely auspicious. A pilgrimage to this place is thought of as complete. It is also believed that there is no need to pay a visit to Kashi after visiting this place. The water of the spring is also supposed to have curative powers. 

Aside from the Main Gurudwara, and the Shiva Temple there are other temples Lord Ram Chandra and Vishnu.

This was from Q now tomorrow from R.

For other posts on Himachal written as part of Ato Z Challenge : List of post on Himachal Pradesh written as part of A to Z challenge.

Aditya Sinha

For other participants in the challenge visit : A to Z Challenge