Holidays
Hello again… well I thought I’d write a little post while I wait to hear from Adriana. I realised that while Yumi was ahead of me in time zones, Adriana you are quite far behind so there’s bound to be a bit of a gap as we change over.
I’m sorry not to have seen any of your recent comments, my dear readers :-) they must all be mixed up with lots of spam… either that or everyone’s disappeared! :-)
Today I’m on holiday from work – hurrah! It’s Janamashtami which is Krishna’s birthday. If you’d like to find out more about how and why this day is celebrated you can have a look here.
I’ve always been fascinated by the variety of religions in India and the energy with which religious holidays are celebrated. This time of year there are quite a few important dates from the four major religions – Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism and Christianity. Last Tuesday we had another Hindu holiday – Raksha Bandhan (I hope I’ve spelled that correctly). On this day, girls traditionally buy pieces of decorative thread to tie around their brothers wrist. In return, their brothers promise to protect them forever and they also give them gifts! It’s a great day to be a girl, as long as you have a brother! Actually, it doesn’t seem to matter too much if you don’t because you can include your male cousins as brothers and it’s quite rare for someone not to have any brothers or male cousins. In fact, lots of people refer to their cousins as brothers and sisters, rather than cousins. I think this is a result of the tradition of living in joint families which we’ve discussed before.
From the Hindu calendar, I think my favourite holiday is Dussehra. This day celebrates the triumph of good over evil, as it marks the occasion when the God Rama defeated the demon Ravana who had kidnapped his wife – Sita. This event is marked by the destruction of huge great big effigies of Ravana which involves lots of fireworks and LOTS of noise! Neighbourhoods all over Delhi have their own Ravanas which are ceremoniously blown up in the evening, accompanied by cheers from the crowds that gather.
Dussehra is closely followed by Diwali which celebrates the return of Rama to his kingdom following the rescue of Sita from Ravana’s clutches. Even more fireworks for this festival – it all gets a bit noisy for me! Both of these events come from the epic tale of the Ramayana. I really love the story – I first came across it when I was about ten because we did a play of it at school – I was a mermaid and had to sing a solo! Dussehra and Diwali are about a week or so apart and normally fall in October/November. Adriana and our readers – I wonder what your favourite holidays are?
Well I’m off to yoga now – it’s my first class since I’ve been pregnant. I used to do lots of yoga in England but haven’t done any since I moved to Delhi! That’s a bit ironic isn’t it! A friend of a friend is a yoga teacher and is also pregnant so the plan is to go to her house once a week. I need to get fit and ready for the birth! I’ll let you know how it goes.
All the best,
Amy
Vocabulary definitions from the last post…
To stuff your face: to eat A LOT – NB. This is very informal (some people think it’s a bit rude to say this!)
To be over the moon: to be extremely happy
To cope with something: to be able to do something even though it is very difficult or perhaps unpleasant.
… and some more!
To be bound to be
Decorative
Triumph
To defeat
To mark
Effigy
Clutches
Epic
To come across
Ironic
Comments
Well... My favourite holidays...? It's really difficult to chose "one", because I love all of them. I suppose that my favourites are summer holidays. These are the longest of the year, so I'm able to do many different things. Enjoy your Yoga class!!!!
Hi Yumi!It sounds interesting that you do yoga. I also do yoga and have seen great results in me since I have started doing it. My younger sister is a yoga teacher so she guides me how to do the correct posture, she is also planning to learn reiki(healing through hands). You must be doing yoga asnas for pregnant women these days. It would be great if you share some asnas with us all. Naheed :)
Hello Amy!!! Wow! I wish I could be in India and see all this festivities with my own eyes. Thanks for your descriptions Amy. They are so vivid, that they help me to imagine all the holidays atmosphere. Well in answer to your question Amy, I don´t have a favourite holiday. I like them all and am looking foward to this Friday, Setember 7th, which will be a holiday here in Brazil. We´re going to celebrate in this day our 'Independence Day'. So my sister and I are planning to go to Ipiranga Museum, which is an amazing building with dazzling gardens, built in honour of Brazilian Independence here in São Paulo. Anyway, I´m looking foward to hearing how was your yoga class. Best wishes, Ana Paula.
I find your blogs about indian life very interesting as ever. How much I'd like to be there!! At least your blogs make me feel as if I were there.May be I want only to go on holiday abroad.I didn't have any this summer.I hope you 'll write more about your life in India.Maybe it could be the place where I go .Ciao Gaetano
Hello Amy :-) I know very little about holidays in India but after having read your short descripion of them I reckon they are very interestng ones and absolutely different from ours in Poland. The one I like best is the custom of giving presents by brothers to their sisters and promising to protect them forever. I haven't got a sister and I have always wanted to have one, that's why I'm happy to have two daughters and a son. But I don't think my son appreciates the fact that he has sisters. He has never mentioned of that but I think he would possibly want to have a brother.
Hi Amy! A nice description of Indian religious tradition and holiday as ever. First of all I didn´t like holiday much for I worked about 20 years in a hopital lab and spent there some days working every such event. On the other hand I have got free each weekend in my new job now, which is more frustrating for me as going regularly on Saturdays to the work. There are diskos lasting till mornings hours on Fridays, Saturdays and even on Wednesdays during the summer holiday in my neigbourhood. That is why I liked to read that not only such older person as I am is tired of this world stricken by the noisiness. Lastly I hope you are going to write yet more about Indian culture or writers. I´ve read only one book written by Rabindranath Thakur (Wickipedia gave me the result - Tagore) and I was very influenced after reading it although that was when I studied at the university, the time when the holiday were a nice time for me! I am waiting for your next post!
Hi Amy, Our comments disappeared in some where. We won’t be disappeared. You are more familiar with Indian festival and holidays than me. You see, it was Onam festival in Kerala( one of the South Indian state) last week. You may know that some of the keralites in Delhi might have been celebrating this festival. Even though we are adjacent to Kerala, we didn’t celebrate that actually. Like that Raksha Bhandan was celebrating in that part of North India but not in Tamilnadu. Only recently the North Indians are making this festival to celebrate here and practicing tie the threat to others hand. Any how each region has got its own way of celebrating festival. It shows their tradition and culture. As you said Ayuda Pooja (Dussehra), Deevali(festival of light), Chritmas(birth of Jesus) and shall I add one more festival, Pongal (Thanks giving for harvesting)are common festival for all. As I am a Christian, I celebrate Christmas. All of our family members gather in our native place at the time of Christmas and share the gifts with each other. From Christmas to New Year will be the wonderful time for me every year. It is the time of Joy and celebration. This time of happiness may extend even up to Pongal it falls on Jan 14.
I´m on a work´s break and looking inside internet, I remember the notice from the radio about The BBC, that I heard around the 5:00 in the morning, and traveling (throw internet) and lookig for practice and learn english I read about the Blog and here I am. I don't know how exactly works this comunication, but i hope you recive this. I studied mechanical engeniering and I am 55 years old and I like to write in time to time so maybe do like this: Is in spanish in an attempt to rhyme but I try to translate it. La Rosa The Rose Era un amable caballero De elegante sombrero It was a gentelman With a elegant hat Era una niña hermosa Recatada y jubilosa It was a beautiful girl (I don´t know. something like serius and happy girl) Y era silvestre una rosa Que feliz su rostro esboza Was a wild rose That happy shows his face Mas un día en la llanura Admiraba la hermosura But one day on the plain Admiring the beauty De la rosa por mejor La niña le dio su amor Of the rose By the girl, giving his love Así la rosa sonrió Y entonces la hirió So the rose smiles And hurted her Una espina tenía clavada La niña fue lastimada One thorn was put into the girl´s hand The girl was hurt En un fuerte clamor El hombre cortó la flor In a strong cry The man cut the flower La niña rompió en llanto Y su pesar era tanto The girl cry so deeply Que el cielo entristeció Y suave brisa brindó That the heven became sad and a softly breese was made Más pronto llegó el cobijo Y no del gran amigo But shelter soon arrive was not for the man Es el pétalo de una rosa Una vez esplendorosa It was a rose´s petal Once splendour Que ahora yace muerta Pero nunca jamás marchita Now lay died But never faded Fue el amor que la hizo volver Al rosal quien la vio crecer Was the love that made it back To the rosebush were it grew Ahora la flor es grandiosa La niña solo es hermosa Now the flower is magnificent The girl is only beautiful __________________________ I don´t know if I can find the way to keep the contact, but just in case my e mail is: oscar.gray@cfe.gob.mx Greetings Oscar Oscar 26/Ago/2005
Hiya Amy, I am in Australia at the moment but come from England,I found your page whilst researching for my GCSE's,i am finding them really difficult at the moment.I am really fasinated in pages like these where you can read other peoples coments and fimd out about other people who are very different to you. I love RS at the moment,in my spare time I am always studying RS. Thanks babe.I think you are fit. Many thanks, Chloe Haynes. xxx
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