Re­li­gion is con­sid­ered to be a part of cul­ture. A cul­ture that has thou­sands of years of his­to­ry and is in­ter­spersed with the lives of great men and women, will have many oc­ca­sions and rea­sons to cel­e­brate dur­ing the year.

The Hin­du way of life is no dif­fer­ent.

Hard­ly a day goes by where Hin­dus can’t cel­e­brate an­niver­saries or oth­er spe­cial oc­ca­sions, of­ten in­clud­ing fast­ing. Fast­ing pro­motes pu­ri­ty of one­self; main­tains good habits, re­mov­ing bad ones.

If a per­son wish­es to fast month­ly, the full moon is the good time; those wish­ing to fast twice a month, Ekadashi (eleventh lu­nar day of the month, there are twen­ty-four in a year).

A week­ly fast de­pends on a per­son’s per­son­al de­vo­tion to a spe­cif­ic de­ity. How­ev­er, of­ten rec­om­mend­ed days are Sun­day, ded­i­cat­ed to Lord Surya (Sun God) and Thurs­day (Lord Vish­nu/Gu­ru).

The New Year be­gins with LORI in mid-Jan­u­ary, one day af­ter is Makar Sankran­ti. Prayers of­fered to Ag­ni (God of Fire), sweets and fruits are dis­trib­uted.

Fes­ti­vals are oc­ca­sions to con­vey our grat­i­tude to the Supreme Spir­it, to share what we have with our fam­i­ly and oth­ers. The cel­e­bra­tions help break the mo­not­o­ny of every­day life and ush­er in change. They bring peo­ple clos­er and take peo­ple clos­er to na­ture and God. They in­spire us to live a vir­tu­ous life.

In­dia is a vast coun­try. There are cli­mat­ic vari­a­tions. There are dif­fer­ences of lan­guage, food and habits. Some fes­ti­vals are cel­e­brat­ed with greater zest in cer­tain ar­eas. Many fes­ti­vals are cel­e­brat­ed si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly all over the coun­try. There is some­thing go­ing on around the year.

Dur­ing Makar Sankran­ti, the sun changes course, mov­ing from the South­ern Hemi­sphere north­wards. On this day, peo­ple bathe in the Gan­ga and oth­er holy rivers and give food items in char­i­ty.

In the last week of Jan­u­ary, or the be­gin­ning of Feb­ru­ary, Bas­ant Panch­mi is cel­e­brat­ed. This fes­ti­val is sym­bol­ic of the in­com­ing spring. The fields look beau­ti­ful with wheat and mus­tard in full flower. This day is ded­i­cat­ed to Ma Saraswati. Teach­ers, writ­ers, mu­si­cians and oth­ers of­fer prayers to her. Sweets are dis­trib­uted.

In mid-Feb­ru­ary is Ma­hashiv­ra­tri. This is the day when Shi­va man­i­fests Him­self. Devo­tees ob­serve a strict fast un­til mid­night. The mantra Om Na­ma Shiv­aya is chant­ed. The fes­ti­val is sym­bol­ic of ris­ing from ig­no­rance to knowl­edge.

In March, the fes­ti­val of Holi (Phag­wa) is ob­served. Peo­ple start mak­ing prepa­ra­tions in ad­vance when they be­gin col­lect­ing fire­wood to sym­bol­i­cal­ly burn Ho­li­ka, and cel­e­brate Holi the next day by throw­ing dry and wet colours on each oth­er in a fes­tive mood. This is a fes­ti­val of friend­ship, an oc­ca­sion to for­give and for­get.

Chaitra Navra­tri is the nine nights de­vot­ed to God­dess Dur­ga. Spe­cial prayers are of­fered. Fasts are ob­served. The birth an­niver­sary of Ram falls on the ninth day and is cel­e­brat­ed as Ram­nau­mi. Prayers are of­fered in tem­ples and homes. The of­fer­ing of food to young girls, sym­bol­ic of the God­dess on the eighth or ninth day, is cus­tom­ary amongst fam­i­lies and con­cludes Navra­tri.

At the be­gin­ning of June, Gan­ga Dashera is cel­e­brat­ed by bathing in the Gan­ga and oth­er holy rivers.

Gu­ru Purn­i­ma is ob­served in June/Ju­ly on the full moon, when devo­tees ho­n­our their spir­i­tu­al teach­ers and aca­d­e­m­ic men­tors.

On the full moon in Au­gust, Rak­sha Band­han is cel­e­brat­ed. The ‘bond of pro­tec­tion’ sig­ni­fy­ing eter­nal love and bond of re­la­tion­ship is ob­served. Here, the fe­male ties an amulet (rakhi) around the male wrist and ap­plies tilak.

The birth of Kr­ish­na, cel­e­brat­ed as Jana­mas­th­mi, falls in Au­gust. Devo­tees fast on the day and of­fer prayers. The fast con­tin­ues till mid­night.

Ganesh Chaturthi, al­so known as Ganesh Ut­sav, cel­e­brates the oc­ca­sion of Lord Ganesh’s birth­day in Au­gust or Sep­tem­ber for a pe­ri­od of ten days. En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly clay mur­tis are car­ried to the sea, riv­er or in­land body of wa­ter and im­mersed.

Dur­ing Pitri Paksh (an­ces­tors’ fort­night), Hin­dus ho­n­our their de­part­ed an­ces­tors through Shrad­dha (food of­fer­ing) and Tarpan (of­fer­ing of wa­ter) for a pe­ri­od of 14 days.

Sharad Navra­tri ho­n­ours the vic­to­ry of God­dess Dur­ga over the demons, de­vo­tion­al ac­tiv­i­ties and com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tions sim­i­lar to Chaitra Navra­tri.

Dashera marks the vic­to­ry of Lord Ra­ma over the de­mon King Ra­van; Ram­leela is a ma­jor fea­ture de­pict­ing the burn­ing of Ra­van’s ef­fi­gy.

Di­vali is cel­e­brat­ed 20 days af­ter Dashera, when Lord Ram re­turned to Ay­o­d­hya af­ter con­quer­ing Ra­van. The fes­ti­val of Di­vali has great sig­nif­i­cance. It is a joy­ous oc­ca­sion where lights shine bright­ly and gifts are ex­changed.

The day af­ter Di­vali, Goverd­han Pu­ja is per­formed. Cows and bulls are dec­o­rat­ed, fed spe­cial food and farm­ers thank them for their sup­port.

Two days af­ter Di­vali is Bhai Dooj, sim­i­lar to Rak­sha Band­han; how­ev­er, it is ex­clu­sive to a broth­er-sis­ter re­la­tion­ship.