Celebrations

Wow! This has been the month of celebrations. Over the past two weeks, each week has had at least one special day, and for the most part it is celebrated several days before and after. Last week was Raksha Bandhan, and this week was Janamashtmi.
Raksha Bandhan is the celebration of brothers. Each sister (which can be biological or otherwise) gives a Rakhi (bracelet) to her brother, and in return he promises to protect her. My family actually celebrated two Raksha Bandhan one with my father’s side of the family, and on with my mother’s side of the family. For my host fathers side there were about 40 people all dressed to the nines to have lots of eating, talking (in Gujarati of course), and tying Rakhis.
There is actually quite a process to undergo; first you dab you ring finger in red dye and put it on the center of your brother’s forehead. Then you place rice in the middle of the red dot. After that you tie the Rakhi on your brother’s wrist, feed each other sweets, and then your brother gives you a gift (normally money). Uncles, Fathers, Cousins, and Brothers all sat in a row, and the girls made a Rakhi tying assembly line. The whole concept of Raksha Bandhan is really great, but being an only child, and in a family of all girl cousins the holiday wouldn’t ever occur in my actual family.
The next big holiday was Janamashtmi, which is the day of Lord Krishna’s birth. For the days before, and on the day of his birth my host family played cards, pranks, and tricks like Krishna because he was very much a trickster. The night before, and of the celebration my host father and all of his friends played Flush for hours. One night he had people at our house until 4:00 in the morning. Before 12:00 am on the 5th we went to my cousins to play some more cards, and then the festivities began.
At around 11:45 pm everyone in my family went to one temple to watch the unveiling of the baby Krishna in his cradle. A huge sheet was put around his statue until the exact moment of his birth, and then they tear it down, pop balloons, throw colored powder on everyone (being tall I was covered in powder, where as everyone else wasn’t so bad), holy water, and chant some happy chants. After Baby Krishna is unveiled, blessed by holy fire, and celebrated, everyone crowds in to rock the cradle. The amazing thing about the cradle is that it is totally covered with packages of cookies, chocolates, and other things that a young child might like. Up until this day the temple people change the decorations on the cradles. After the first temple my family all went to a second temple to be blessed again. We then went to a friend’s house to eat holy fruit, and laugh at how much powder I had on my face.
One thing that is amazing about the statuses of the Gods is that everyday the caretakers of the temple bath and change the little clothes of the God statues 5-6 times a day!! I was watching my host mother change the clothes and ornaments of the gods that are in our household, and it was quite a process. First they bath the gods with holy water, then they change their clothes and ornaments, then they reapply the red dot on their forehead, offer food, burn incense, and bless with the holy fires. Also to be allowed to touch the god you have to be clean. For this reason it is compulsory for me to take a bath (not that it bothers me with India being so hot).
The next day my school was supposed to have a Janamashtmi celebration with Garba (dancing with clicking sticks), and a type of tower made out of bodies to gather a pot full of goodies. Kind of like a piñata, but the boys have a make a tower with their bodies to reach the pot hung high in the air. Of course it’s India so guess what happened? It rained, and rained, so much that our assembly patio was flooded. That day was also teacher’s Day, and the upper class students were supposed to play the role of teachers for a day, but also due to rain it was cancelled. The fun thing about the day was that everyone dresses in traditional clothing, and the whole school was a very colorful place to be.