Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:usha manohar wrote:Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:We celebrated Gudhi Padwa yesterday, the beginning of a new year for us. It is celebrated to mark the victory of Shalivahan over the shakas and it also when Shalivahan introduced the calendar that we Maharashtrians still follow, the calendar is called as Shalivahan Shake. We celebrate this day by raising Gudhi or the 'Brahmadhwaj' outside our homes. Gudhi is prepared by draping a new cloth at one end of a bamboo stick, tying a branch of mango leaves and neem leaves and flowers, decorating it with a garland of marigold flowers and a special garland made of sugar medallions (sakhrechi gathi) and placing a copper or silver lota over this. We then draw a Swastik on this lota with kumkum and ashtagandha and this gudhi is then raised outside our window or balcony. This is done in the mornings and the gudhi is taken off at sunset. We eat prasad made of blending together tender new neem leaves and flowers, jaggery, coriander seeds and cumin seeds. This is so that we can avail the goodness and healing as well as cooling properties of neem and help counter the heat of the summer.
I watched this on TV , very interesting and artistic . India is so very rich in its customs and traditions..We too keep a small copper pot which we call chombu filled with well water , covered with mango and nettle leaves and keep a coconut inverted on top of it and decorate it with local fowers . This is smeared with kumkum and haldi and kept near the entrance by the eldest member of the family.
True Usha! Almost all of the customs and rituals that Indians follow have evolved around nature and these are the way to pay tributes to mother nature in the most interesting and artistic manner. Tradition of rangoli, decorating our front doors with garlands of flowers and leaves etc. show how artistic and aesthetic our ancestors were. Sadly, now, in the name of celebration, we create havoc to the nature and think nothing else but to celebrate somehow, without giving a thought to preservation of nature or anything like that!.
So very true Kalyani, even food served during festivals were very much in accordance with what nature gifted us during that time. Like raw mangoes, tender cashews and seasonal vegetables are used during Ugadi and so on..
Pay no mind to those who talk behind your back, it simply means that you are two steps ahead !!!
