JANAI PURNIMA

 JANAI PURNIMA

Janai Purnima is observed in the month of Shrawan. It is called Rakshya Bandhan as this festival observes the bond of purity and security.  This festival is celebrated by Hindus all over the world. 

Janai Purnima is Sacred Thread Festival. On this day, Hindu men, especially the Brahmins and Chettris perform their annual change of Janai and all who celebrates this festival put a scared thread around their wrist.

What is Janai

Janai is a cotton string worn across the chest by Hindu male. This thread is only given to males during a long and  impressive religious ceremony called Bratabandhan. Almost all the religion has type of Bratabandhan, but known by different names. Bratabandhan is basically a formal process of accepting someone in the religion.

  

The Janai initiates the boy into manhood and commands them to devotedly follow the religion and the path of truth. The Janai must be worn every day of their lives after they listen their mantra from the guru during the Bartabandha. 

Janai is regarded as symbol of body, speech and mind, and when the knots are tied the person wearing it is supposed to gain complete control over each of them.

This cord is changed if it becomes untidy or dishonored due to those acts which are forbidden by religion.  However, Janai must be changed without fail on Rakhsya Bandhan Day.

Meaning of Janai Purnima

Janai is sacred thread, and Purnima is full moon day,  thus it is Janai festival in the full moon day of Shrawan month of Bikram Sambat Calendar

When is Janai Purnima

Janai Purnima is on Shrawan Purnima. This year Janai Purnima is on Bhadra 12, 2072, that coincides with English Calendar date of August 29, 2015.

What do we do in Janai Purnima

A day before Janai purnima the persons wearing janai should make themselves 'clean' by shaving or cutting hair and take a good bath. They undergo a partial fasting, taking only one meal of foods considered to be 'clean' - no meat, no onions or garlic. Before big event Hindus prefer to clean their body by keeping fasting. Satvic food is prescribed for all Hindu ritual and festival. 

In the Purnima morning men usually go to rivers and ponds nearby, to take secret bath dipping himself thrice in the water. Men, then change their Janai. Break the old ones.  

However in cities, the family priest (Pandit / Puret) comes to the residence. The entire family gathers around pandit as he reads the importance and stories of the from a holy book (patro) and performs a ceremony, which purifies the new thread, and places it about the men’s neck across the chest. In a payment the priest is given foodstuffs and monies. The money is called Dakshina and other stuff are called Daan in Sanskrit.

RAKSHA BANDHAN

RAKSHA BANDHAN

Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan, or simply Rakhi, is a Hindu festival centred around the tying of a thread or ornamental bracelet on the right wrist as a form of bond and ritual protection between brother and sister. It's celebrated on the full moon day in the lunar month of Shravana. The day signifies the mutual bond of love between siblings.The festive Hindu and Jain ritual is one principally between brothers and sisters, observed both before and after she gets married thereby marking her continued relationship with her natal home and brothers. The rite is also found between priests and patrons, and sometimes by individuals to real or potential benefactors. Differing versions of the rite have been traditionally performed in northern India, western India,Nepal, and some Hindu, Jain and Sikh emigrants from the India since the 19th-century. It is alternately referred to as Saluno, Silono, and Rakri. The rituals associated with these rites, however, have spread beyond their traditional regions to much of India and have been transformed through technology and migration, the movies, social interaction, and promotion by politicized Hinduism, as well as as a occasion of national solidarity and state tradition. 

On this festival, sisters of all ages tie a cotton bracelet or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, ritually affirming the bond and support of her brothers, receiving a gift from them in return, and traditionally investing the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care. The expression "Raksha Bandhan," Sanskrit, literally, "the bond of protection, obligation, or care," is now principally applied to this ritual. It has also applied to a similar ritual in which a domestic priest ties string bracelets on the wrists of his patrons and receives gifts of money. A ritual associated with Saluno includes the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers. 

Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial exogamy, in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by custom, do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where territorial exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony.Their brothers, who typically live with the parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married- and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.

Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through the tying of rakhi amulets, which have cut across caste and class lines, and Hindu and Muslim divisions. In some communities or contexts, other figures, such as a matriarch, or a person in authority, can be included in the ceremony in ritual acknowledgement of their benefaction. Raksha Bandhan is also celebrated by Hindu communities in other parts of the world. Although rooted in Hindu culture, the festival has no traditional prayers unambiguously associated with it. The religious myths claimed for it are disputed, and the historical stories associated with it considered apocryphal by some historians.

GAI JATRA

GAI JATRA

Sa Paru (also known as Gai Jatra), is the festival, celebrated in Nepal, mainly in Kathmandu valley by the Newar and the Tharu community. The festival commemorates the death of people during the year. During the festival, cows are marched in the streets and generally celebrated in the month of Bhadra (August–September). It falls on the 1st day of the dark fortnight of Gunla according to the lunar Nepal Era

calendar. People also distribute food to others. The festival of cows is one of the most popular festivals of Nepal. It is celebrated to remove the sadness of death of family members.

The whole complex of Sa Paru festival has its roots in the ancient ages for, the dead Parent.

• According to the traditions since time immemorial, every family who has lost one relative during the past year must participate in a procession through the streets of Kathmandu leading a cow. If a cow is unavailable then a young boy dressed as a cow is considered a fair substitute.
• In Hinduism, a cow is regarded the most venerated among all the domestic animals. It is believed that the cow, revered as a holy animal by Hindus, will help the deceased relative's journey to heaven.
• According to the historical evidence, when King Pratap Malla lost his son, his wife, the queen, remained grief-stricken. The king was very sad to see the condition of his beloved queen. The king, in spite of several efforts, could not lessen the grief of his wife. He desperately wanted to see a little smile on the lips of his sweetheart, and so he announced that anyone who made the queen laugh would be rewarded adequately.
• During the Sa Paru, the cow procession was brought before the grief-stricken queen. Then the participants began ridiculing and be-fooling the important people of the society. Finally, when the social injustices and other evils were highlighted and attacked mercilessly, the queen could not help but smile. The queen cried and the king instituted a tradition of including funny jokes, satire, monkey, and lagoons into the Sa Paru celebrating the day.

• After the procession is over, in the afternoon, nearly everyone takes part in another age-old tradition in which the participants dress up and wear masks. The occasion is filled with songs and jokes. Mockery and humor of every kind become the order of the day until late evening. Hence, Sa Paru is a healthy festival which enables the people to accept the reality of death and to prepare themselves for life after death. According to Hinduism, "whatever a man does in his life is a preparation leading to a good life after death".