Some Famous Indian Festivals and Their Meanings

Pooja Room decorated by our Mom

The special feature of this festival is “Vishukkani”, which is an offering to the divine. On the night before this day, our mom used to decorate the pooja (prayer) room, with flowers, jewels, mirror and all good and auspicious things. It is a belief that the thing which you see first on the New Year will determine how the rest of the whole year will be for you. In the morning, our mom will take us to the pooja room, where she decorated and make us to see those auspicious things first, as it will make our entire year bright and happy.

Konna Poo, near to our home

Konna poo is a flower which blossoms only during this time and it occupies one important place in the pooja room while decorating.

Onam

Onam is a festival celebrated in the Kerala state of India. It is the festival to welcome harvest season, as the heavy rains come to an end and spring starts, which is also celebrated to show their tribute to King Mahabali, who once ruled Kerala prosperously. People of Kerala believe that King Mahabali will visit their home during the festival and bless them with prosperous.

Flower decoration by me on the day of Onam

Onam comes in the days between the months of Aug mid-Sep mid. It is celebrated for 10 days. The 10th day is Onam. All those 10 days, people will decorate their home with flowers known as “Onapookkalam”.

My Sadya, just before I start eating

One of the main attractions of Onam is “Onam Sadya”, which means “The Grand Lunch of Onam”, and there is a saying in Kerala that you should even sell your properties if required, to have Sadya on Onam day. There are lot more in-door and out-door activities associated with Onam festival.

Navarathri

Nava means nine and Rathri means Night. It is a festival celebrated for nine days (especially in the nights), which is meant for Goddess Durga, the ultimate power. It is believed that Goddess Durga takes the form of each Goddess like Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth), Saraswathi (Goddess of Studies), etc… each day and on the final day, she becomes the Goddess Durga, who is the Goddess of power and destroys all evils from this world.

The decorated steps on Navarathri

This comes in the month of October. During those nine days, we make few steps in the hall of the house and decorate it with colorful, attractive dolls and idols of Gods and Goddesses. Every day the theme of the exhibition keeps changing and we arrange the dolls and idols as per our theme and imagination. We sing devotional songs every evenings and distribute prasadam (holy food served after prayer) to all those visited our home for the pooja (prayer).

Diwali

It is also pronounced as Deepavali, the festival of light and joy.

Lamps lit in all places of our home

There are lots of stories associated with the celebration of Deepavali. The story which was told by mom and trusted by me is, Lord Krishna killed a giant named Narakashuran and saved this world.

Crackers burnt by my husband, I don’t dare to go near

In memory of that joy, people lit lamps in their home and burn crackers to show their happiness. This comes in a day between the months of Oct mid to Nov mid.

All photos taken by author.