ASADHA MASA SUKLA PAKHYA PANCHAMI TITHI A GREAT OCCASSION FOR CELEBRATION SITAL SASTHI LORD SIVA PARVATI MARRIAGE A HUGE DEVOTIEES FROM ALL CORNER ATTEND AND WITNESS THE MARRIAGE AND CELEBRATE.
Yesterday I had been to a wedding reception.It was held in a temple near my place.There were lots of people chatting away happily,colourful lights,samianas,good food,loud music with the newly weds decked up in beautiful clothes.. just like any other wedding u may think.Or not really..
Here the guests had not come to bless the couple but to seek blessings instead.For it was the wedding of their gods,Shiva and his consort Parvati.
It's the festival of Shital Sasthi that marks the holy alliance of lord Shiva and Parvati..Celebrated all over Orissa,especially western Orissa, this festival draws one of the biggest crowds after the Rath Yatra of Puri.But most predominant among all the celebrations takes place in the towns of Bargarh and Sambalpur,where almost each locality(pada) has its own celebrations.
The rituals are spread over a week.On the lines of a Hindu wedding, one family is chosen as the family of the bride and another of the groom.And on the day of the marriage,shiva's family comes to the bride's(parvati's) place for the bahaghara(wedding).People take part in long road processions from the groom's place to the bride's taking the deities in open chariots with various designer motiffs(parbha) serving as background.Artists perform many folk dances,like the bagha nrutya,sambalpuri,the mascot dances etc along the way.Wedding vows are exchanged followed by Kanya daan.One can witness some emotionally charged moments when Parvati leaves for Shiva's abode.It just shows that in India people take their marriages seriously,as they do their gods.
the parbhas
bagha nritya(tiger dance)
I was invited to the ceremony in the Shiva temple near my place.It's a pretty old temple,lying in the heritage belt of Bhubaneswar.There are many temples in and around the periphery of Lingaraj temple that are very old with lots of historical importance like the kedar gouri,Anant vasudev,Nageswar temple etc..I'd never been to any such function before.Though I'm religious,I'm not someone who visits the temple regularly.But i really liked this experience.
I feel festivals are not just mere occasions of celebrations.Every festival has a lot of positive thoughts,ideas and lessons to offer.Witnessing or being a part of one such event might change the hearts of some of the skeptics who don't have faith in the our social institutions.Sounds dramatically cliched but then marriages are made in heaven,realized on earth. :)
Yesterday I had been to a wedding reception.It was held in a temple near my place.There were lots of people chatting away happily,colourful lights,samianas,good food,loud music with the newly weds decked up in beautiful clothes.. just like any other wedding u may think.Or not really..
Here the guests had not come to bless the couple but to seek blessings instead.For it was the wedding of their gods,Shiva and his consort Parvati.
It's the festival of Shital Sasthi that marks the holy alliance of lord Shiva and Parvati..Celebrated all over Orissa,especially western Orissa, this festival draws one of the biggest crowds after the Rath Yatra of Puri.But most predominant among all the celebrations takes place in the towns of Bargarh and Sambalpur,where almost each locality(pada) has its own celebrations.
The rituals are spread over a week.On the lines of a Hindu wedding, one family is chosen as the family of the bride and another of the groom.And on the day of the marriage,shiva's family comes to the bride's(parvati's) place for the bahaghara(wedding).People take part in long road processions from the groom's place to the bride's taking the deities in open chariots with various designer motiffs(parbha) serving as background.Artists perform many folk dances,like the bagha nrutya,sambalpuri,the mascot dances etc along the way.Wedding vows are exchanged followed by Kanya daan.One can witness some emotionally charged moments when Parvati leaves for Shiva's abode.It just shows that in India people take their marriages seriously,as they do their gods.
the parbhas
bagha nritya(tiger dance)I was invited to the ceremony in the Shiva temple near my place.It's a pretty old temple,lying in the heritage belt of Bhubaneswar.There are many temples in and around the periphery of Lingaraj temple that are very old with lots of historical importance like the kedar gouri,Anant vasudev,Nageswar temple etc..I'd never been to any such function before.Though I'm religious,I'm not someone who visits the temple regularly.But i really liked this experience.
I feel festivals are not just mere occasions of celebrations.Every festival has a lot of positive thoughts,ideas and lessons to offer.Witnessing or being a part of one such event might change the hearts of some of the skeptics who don't have faith in the our social institutions.Sounds dramatically cliched but then marriages are made in heaven,realized on earth. :)
