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Society
Celebrations
in India
The Indian calendar is
one long procession of festivals. These are as varied in origin as they are
large in number. There are innumerable national, regional, local, religious,
seasonal and social festivities. This is not surprising considering the fact
that India is the land of gods, goddesses, saints, gurus and prophets.
There is a vast
variety of festivities in India ranging from national, regional, religious,
social to season ones. Considering the fact that India's culture and
religion is made up of saints, gurus, gods, goddesses and prophets, the variety
is not surprising.
The large number of festivals, with
some that are incredibly magnificent, almost go year-round. Every January,
the Republic Day Festival is held in Delhi. This festival is a secular one
that has a procession and elephants as well as a show of the military.
The high-spirited Hindu Holi
festival in February is celebrated in the northern part of India by throwing red
powder and colored water over as many people as possible in one day, thus
commemorating the end of winter.
The Ganesh Chaturthi
festival is widely celebrated, but especially in Maharashtra. At this time
there are firecrackers, shrines erected, and clay idols placed in the sea or
rivers. Another important part of this festival is not looking at the
moon, if at all possible.
Another Hindu festival, Diwali,
honors several gods and is celebrated during November over a period of five
days. The celebration of this festival include firecrackers, oil lamps and
sweets.
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