Family, feasts, and festivities!
This saga begins in the early part of August and peaks around October and November, if you follow the Gregorian calendar. The amount of festivities and festivals that mount upon the days of the calendar leads to materialising the art of unions between family, friends and dear ones!
Welcome to India where the fun never stops, the feasts are on, the tummies become tight and well the appetite for togetherness never ceases to exist. The part about gathering to create something amazing begins before, around and even after festivals.
Your families begin planning the festivities many months to the actual day. The menu on the feasts are pre-planned or at least there is an attempt to make it larger than life. The decorations, colors and oil lamps are purchased in dozens, along with fresh stock of deities, sweet meats and those blood pressure rising savouries too!
Your special diets and workouts can go for a toss, when people visit with bouquets, tons of special sweets and some fancy vouchers for spa treatments. There are also some senior citizens who take you to the side of a hall and fold up ten crisp notes and neatly tuck it into your pocket, requesting you to purchase something different! God bless them.
There is always something that the appointed market goer forgets to purchase because the ladies in the house say that such things are implied and must be remembered. Hence, the last minute rush becomes a reality and everyone jumps into two separate scooters to ensure everything is ready and nothing is left to chance for the celebration.
This entire cycle is continued for all national and regional festivals, as the middle class navigates through regular work, remarks from bosses at work and constant reminders from elders to have a life!
When the final day arrives, there’s a last application of hair dye, coconut oil, and special turmeric paste that needs to be applied because tradition merits its necessity. The kids get ready first, followed by the men who keep saying hurry up, and finally the ladies of the house dazzle in their colorful attire, special jewellery, perfumes and vermillion on their foreheads.
Finally, everyone assembles near the puja room to chant prayers, light the oil lamps, offer sweets to the deities and spread smiles among each other, thanking the gods and goddesses for this moment in their lives and wishing for many more blessed days ahead!
Family, feasts, and festivities… All of them are definitely on and keeping everyone happy and on their toes. Keep track of the blessed times and pray for prosperity!
