In the Midst of Shraavan: The Month of Festivals

In the Vedic calendar, when the Sun enters the House of Leo (approximately mid-July to mid-August), it is the month-long festival of Shraavan. It is a time that is celebrated in song, theater and cinema. There are street festivals, special pujas and family gatherings. By some calendars Shraavan is calculated from Full Moon to Full Moon, in others, it is New Moon to New Moon. There are many holidays during this time, depending on local customs and traditions.

The whole month is dedicated to Lord Shiva and many days within the month are dedicated to Lord Vishnu. There are auspicious days for fasting. It is the marriage season and on the dry plains of India it is the monsoon season. In agricultural areas farmers honor livestock and the land. Here are some of the holidays:

- Shravan Somar:  Mondays, wives fast for their family’s well-being and pray to Lord Shiva

- Mangal Gauri: Tuesdays, wives fast and pray to Goddess Parvati

- Karnika Ekadashi: August 10, Day of Vishnu’s Blessing

- Hariyali Teej: August 17, Day of Parvati, Shiva’s wife

- Nag Panchami:  August 19, married women offer milk to snakes to bless their brothers and sisters

- Putrada Ekadashi:  August 25, Day of Vishnu’s Blessing

- Varalakshmi Vratram:  August 28, Day of Lakshmi’s Blessings

- Raksha Bandha:  August 29, Day to celebrate love between brothers and sisters

*Timings are for the United States, 2015.

 ----------------------------------------------------------

Here is a poem celebrating this festival month:

Shraavan

Holiest month, time of festival, spectacle and worship,

Star Shraavan rules the skies.

Winds shift and clouds gather over parched plains.

Relief is on its way, the rain is coming,

Monsoon.

And the temples are ready to celebrate

Music, food and family.

Honoring New Moon, Full Moon, poets, God of the Sea,

Krishna, Shiva, brother and sister, snakes, cows and bullocks,

Marital happiness, Lakshmi, fasting, feasting,

Pomp, fun and solemnity.

All month long, Sunrise to Sunrise,

The world is dancing and singing.

                                                           -Nafeeah Kim

Holidays and celebrations are a time to share love and build community, foster cultural pride and delight the senses. Honoring special days is enriching, creates beautiful memories and sanctifies life!

How will you celebrate?  


Further reading: 
Click here for another article about Shraavan
Click here for a website with lots of specific info on holiday times and meaning.

Who Is Your Real Family?

We have heard much about the value of family and how, in the end, family is really the most important thing. It is the relationships within family that brings us the greatest happiness and are the foundation and the stability of our individual lives and our society.

But what if we considered the whole world as our family? Every country a part of the family of nations? And everyone we meet as dear to us as our own folk? As the Tamil poet Poongundranar wrote over two millennia ago, “every place is my hometown, everyone my kith and kin…”

Oh, how this world could change! Economics, politics, government and distribution of global resources would all be transformed. This is the ideal behind the saying “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” from Vedic literature and Hindu traditions. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam  translates approximately as “the World is my Family.” This declaration of spiritual philosophy gives us the key to making all of our relationships sacred.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam goes hand-in-hand with the Lakota prayer phrase “Mitakuye Oyasin” which translates closely to “all my relations” or “we are all related.”

All children are our children.
All elders are our elders.
The illness or health of one of us, is the concern of all of us.
We are our brothers’ and our sisters’ keepers.
We survive and thrive depending on our relationships to one another.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is the 2015 theme for Shiva Sai Mandir, Denver, Colorado USA.

Here are two uplifting music videos:
Click here for a VasudhaivaKutumbakam music video!
Click here for a MitakuyeOyasin music video!

“We all have families who are longing for peace in the world and an end to the suffering caused by poverty, disease, and hunger. Untold numbers of our friends, our neighbors, our parents, and our children, are hoping that there is more understanding, more generosity, more genuine friendship, and more caring among people of all faiths and cultures.”

-John Conyers, Politician & Social Change Advocate