MEHULENTERPRISE

Indian pagan festivals...

It is common and even fashionable among the modern day party goers to make snobbish com¬ments about the traditional festivals and culture, as archaic, uncivilized, or born out of blind faith. The present day parties are, mostly, aimed at eulogizing an individual in order to derive benefits or favours from that individual. On the other hand, the tra¬ditional festivals are aimed at the welfare of the society, communal harmony and meant as thanksgiv¬ing to the nature for the benefits re¬ceived from the sun, rain, air, wind, etc. Celebrating festivals with proper understanding imbibed a value system in the minds of the individual, which in turn helped in preserving the nature in its pristine glory. The best example is the sacred groves, in which a deity was in command of an area and was worshipped annually. The biodiversity of the Western Ghats is mainly due to the existence of thousands of sacred groves in that region. In the absence of electricity which in modern days is pompously misused through lighting and sound, full moon was the time for festivities, after a day of hard work. All the full moon days of the year has one or the other festivals like Nariyeli Poornima, Vat Poornima, Kojagiri Poornima, Datta Jayanti, Guru Poornima, Holi, Hanuman Jayanti, Kartik Poornima, etc. Apart from these festivals Sankaranti, Navaratri, Onam, Shivratri, Nagpanchami, etc., have their own significance. Underlying all these functions is the concept of thanksgiving to the nature. In Puranas, one reads about the worship of the Govardhangiri, to propitiate the rain god. It is not the god, but the forest in the Govardhan hill that causes rain, a fact well accepted now. When the festival falls on Amavasya day, fighting becomes important as in Diwali. The festivals have also been eco friendly; legend has it that the lord Rama made idols of Shakti in clay to worship during Navaratri; the goddess Parvati was supposed to have made a boy out of clay to guard her, who later became the lord Ganesha. The prasadis distributed during the festivals were also in keeping with the season. In the south India, during Navaratri, the prasadis boiled pulses, fish in protein; during Chatunnasya Vrat, certain food items are avoided because they are infected with worms. Fasting on Ekadasi, Chaturti, Ashatini, etc., were helpful in maintaining the body metabolism; there was no need to go to body care centres to keep the body fit. Car festivals helped in bringing together the rich and the poor, old and the young. During the annual float festivals the pond or the lake was cleaned, which helped in rejuvenating the aquifers. Festivals also coincided with sowing and harvesting, change of seasons, all meant to be thanksgiving. Modern science has recognised the importance of in¬terface in instruments, computers, and printers, etc. In the past, it was called Sandhya and had religious significance, as time for changes in energy fields. Prayers were offered at dawn before sun rise, at dusk midday, eclipse, new moon days, change in the movement of the sun, etc. We continue to celebrate functions and festivals, exhibiting our capacity to spend rather than understanding the significance. We received as gift the Earth in pristine glory from our forefathers who lived in harmony with the nature with reverence and gratitude. We are mindlessly plundering the environment as civilised modern humans. In today's times people have to be reminded about this noble virtue. When I was working in school we had a nature club and the members of the club had undertaken a project to list all festivals which intend to preserve trees or animals and in turn the environment. Each club member was given a questionnaire to find out how these festivals are celebrated in modern days. The children were expected to visit each family in their housing society and request the ladies to fill in the questionnaire. Children were shocked to find out that these festivals were now celebrated in a destructive manner. So a brainstorming session followed to find out the means and ways to reduce this destruction. The children came out with some fantastic ideas and tried following some like planting and taking care of saplings, preparing and distributing information sheets and pamphlets, performing street plays and spreading awareness, visiting orphanages and celebrating festivals with the orphans, etc. Thus children were made conscious about the consequences of not understanding the true spirit behind our Indian festivals. However, I now feel that the time has come to do away with the age old festivals which are celebrated in a wrong way and celebrate only environmental days.

* Compiled by MEHUL SHAH (Various publications).