Happy Easter 2012!

 

Happy Belated Easter to you all!

I’m so sorry this is a day late, but in true Easter fashion, we spent the weekend with friends and family.

We went for a lovely Easter brunch on Saturday with a friend who is in India getting his Visa stamped before heading back to the US and then Sunday we had Easter Dinner with our best friend and neighbor.

Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed to the civil calendar. So it’s sometimes really hard to guess when Easter is going to be but it generally variates between March 22nd and May 8th.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its place in the calendar. In many languages, the words for “Easter” and “Passover” are homonymous. Easter customs vary across the world, but attending sunrise services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting (which means greeting someone with “Christ is Risen” and them returning with “Truly, HE is Risen!”), clipping the church (which means that the congregation will hold hands and form a circle around the church to sing hymns, cheer or dance) and decorating Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb, are common motifs. Additional customs include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades, and are observed by both Christians and non-Christians and are usually viewed as renewal or rebirth.

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So what is Easter?

Simply put, it’s the day that Jesus Christ came back from the dead.

But that’s not the whole story!

It all begins on Good Friday….

Christians believe that Jesus was killed on the cross about 2000 years ago by the Romans in a city called Jerusalem (most of Jerusalem is in the modern Country of Israel). The people who killed him did so because they believed that he was causing trouble for the government, and because he was claiming to be the Messiah. When they crucified him (meaning they nailed him to a cross), they even hung a sign over his head, which said, “King of the Jews.” The day he was crucified is known by Christians as Good Friday.

Christians believe that on the Sunday after Jesus was killed, some of his followers found that his body was no longer in the tomb where he was laid. Later, Jesus is said to have appeared to over 500 people and preached to them. The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus is what Christianity is based on. The resurrection made people believe that Jesus was the powerful Son of God. It is also spoken of as proof that God will judge the world fairly.  Christians believe that God has given Christians “a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. Christians believe that through faith in God they are spiritually made alive with Jesus so that they may lead a new life.

Courtesy of Wikipedia (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter)

What Easter means to me is Egg Hunts with my family and Chocolate Bunny’s with their ears bitten off (My Mom never once let us get to those ears first – it became a family tradition) and at my Grandparents house it meant Ham with fresh biscuits and gravy and coleslaw. Another basket full of marshmallows peeps and peanut butter filled chocolate eggs.

My Grandfather would hang packets of Juicy Fruit Gum and little plastic eggs filled with candy on the tree in front of their house. It was lovely to go out with him and get the gum and show him what candy was inside the brightly colored eggs. After he passed, my own parents carried on the tradition at our house.

To me, Easter means being with family, remembering the reason we are all here and beginning anew to do the right things and live the best life possible.

What’s Easter mean to you?

 

©  2012 Gori Rajkumari

Happy Holi and International Women’s Day 2012!

It’s that time of year again! It’s been busy here in GoriRajkumari land with visits from family, an illness and preparations for Holi!

Holi (होली), is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours.

The main day, Holi, also known as Dhuli in Sanskrit, is celebrated by Hindu’s throwing scented, colored powder and perfume at each other.

Bonfires are lit on the eve of the festival, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). After doing holika dahan prayers are said and praise is offered. The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion.

All of India wears a festive look when it is time for Holi celebration. Markets are alive with activity as people start making preparations for the festival. Heaps of various hues of gulal and abeer can be seen on the roadside days before the festival. Pichkaris in innovative and modern design too come up every year to lure the children who wish to collect them as Holi memorabilia and of course, to drench everybody in the town.

Women begin making early preparations for the holi festival as they cook loads of gujiya, mathri and papri for the family and for the relatives.

Great excitement can be seen in people on the day following Dhuli, when it’s actually the time to play “colours”. Shops and offices remain closed for the day in most cases, to give people an opportunity to play. Bright colours of gulal and abeer fill the air and people take turns in pouring colour water over each other. Children take special delight in spraying colours on one another with their pichkaris and throwing water balloons and passers-by. Women and senior citizen form groups called tolis and move in colonies – applying colours and exchanging greetings. Songs, dance on the rhythm of dholak and mouth-watering Holi delicacies are the other highlights of the day.

Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in the later part of February or March.

This year, we not only get to celebrate Holi, but also International Women’s Day!

Have a GREAT Holi and International Women’s Day!

© GoriRajkumari 2012

Happy Valentine’s Day 2012!

From Gori and Bear, wishing you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

Merry Christmas 2011!

Well, it’s my 3rd Christmas in India!

A family tradition is to tell a small (or large in the case of my Dad) story about Christmas past.

Here’s mine….

My younger brother and I would spend the last month of the year trying to out do each other in the “being good” department.  We would have debates on whether Santa really had his vision cloaked when it came to bathroom visits (ie:  could he see us in there or NOT) and argue incessantly about which of us was going to stay up longest to see Santa on Christmas Eve night without our parents (or Santa) catching on that we were awake.

The late night shenanigans would usually start with us pushing the bed time to as late as we could without missing the window in which Santa visited our corner of the world.  Then it was off to bed to whisper to each other through our bedroom doors about whether that creak we just heard was Santa or Dad coming up from downstairs.

One year is famous in our house.  We had a split level home, with a small but grand foyer for the front door.  You could go down to our rec room or up to the main floor with the bedrooms and kitchen and dinning and where the Christmas Tree’s stood, one on either side of our fire-place.

That year, my brother and I were at it again, working hard at keeping the whispers down and speculations flying.  Checking to see if someone was sleeping or not (major coup if they were).  But this one year something totally new and unexpected happened.

That was the year that our Dad scared off Santa Claus.

You see, my Dad worked a swing shift and so would sometimes come home after midnight.  That year was the year that he was due to come home at midnight and then would have Christmas Day off and not go back to work for 3 more days.  It was a huge deal for us….since Dad worked a majority of the holiday’s because the pay was so much better.  So, my little brother and I added the speculation as to whether Dad would see Santa on his way home from work.

Imagine our surprise to hear our Dad at the front door saying “Hey!  Who the heck are you and get OFF my ROOF!”.  Then we heard rustling on our very roof, right above our rooms!  ”Ho Ho Ho!” was the reply.  Then our Dad again “Ok Mister!  I’m coming up and there and when I do you better be GONE!”

Well, that was TOO much for my brother and I, who barely made it out of our beds without breaking our necks, ran down the hallway towards the steps and the foyer, screaming “NO DADDY!!!!!  It’s SANTA CLAUSE!!!!!  Don’t scare him away!  He’s got our presents!!”

It took my Dad a good half an hour or more to calm us down and get us back into bed and feigning sleep.  We lay there, waiting for the sun to come up and when it did, we plowed into our parents room, screaming that it was Christmas and to wake up and we needed to see if Santa had come!

Thankfully, he had.  Our presents were under the tree.

Thus began the tradition of our Dad’s run in’s with Santa, his helpers, his reindeer or presents accidentally dropped in the front yard with neighbors names on them “They must have fallen out of his sleigh as he drove over head.” was my Dad’s response to our questions.  But mainly it started that early morning waking of our parents tradition that we still carry out.  To this day and as full-fledged adults living in our own homes far away from our parents, my brother and I feverishly watch the clock and wait for that perfect 6am moment when we can call our Parents and wake them from deep slumber to say “ It’s Christmas!!  Wake up!!!  We need to see if Santa has come!! “

So with that in mind, I give you this to enjoy as your Christmas Present from Bear and Gori.  Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year!  See you in 2012!!!

 

 

© Gori Rajkumari 2011

Reading Suggestion: Topic – Hinduism

© Gori Rajkumari

I have written posts (here and here and here) about religion and given my own thoughts, theory and opinion on that same topic.

I thought that it would be far more interesting for other’s to know where and how I got my opinions on Hinduism.

Naturally, I received my understanding of Christianity and Judaism through my upbringing.  My own family was Christian and we attended a Brethren Church.  My Aunt, Uncle and two cousins were Orthodox Jews, so I learned from them the belief structure and traditions of Judaism.

However, I realized recently that many people feel I learned my understanding of Hinduism strictly from my husband Bear.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  While I did learn much from him, it was only after I had already begun to study it myself.

I was first introduced to it when I was learning about Buddhism from a friend of mine.  She had a friend who was Hindu.  It was from this person that I got my first introduction to the belief structure of Hinduism and it was this same person who led me to read some of the online English versions of the Veda’s and the Bhagwat Geeta.  That was ten years ago!

After meeting my husband, I decided to attend meetings and scripture study with the Arya Samaj in Southern California.

There I met the man whom I think of as my spiritual Guru.  His name is Dr. Sudhir Anand and he had the most profound and fascinating viewpoints on Hinduism and the Abrahamic faiths that I had ever heard.  The Arya Samaj in So Cal had many wise and spiritually profound leaders, but it was through Dr. Anand’s two books that I further fashioned my own beliefs and understanding.

So, I would like to share these two books with you in the hopes that they touch you as they have me.

Dr. Sudhir Anand's books. © Gori Rajkumari

The first is “Who Is GOD?  Does God Have Shape or Form”.  In this book Dr. Anand explains the intricacies of belief from the Veda’s and how it has evolved with Hinduism today.  He explains what he feels it is that God is asking from us.  He also explains the subtle influences of Hinduism on other beliefs as well as showing comparisons with the Abrahamic Religions.

In his second book “The Essence of the Hindu Religion: With an Introduction to the Vedas and Yoga” Dr. Anand goes into further and in-depth discussions on the Veda’s and how they can apply to today’s modern life.

I thoroughly enjoy both of his books; read them along my copies of the Holy Bible, the Bhagwat Geeta, the Idiots Guide to Hinduism and my condensed English version of the Torah.  They are complimentary to each and every one of those books and I highly recommend them to you as well.

What books have inspired you or shaped your beliefs?

© Gori Rajkumari

Do you celebrate Karwa Chauth?

Karwa Chauth is a Festival for married women who celebrate by fasting, gift giving and bonding with sisters, mothers and friends.  It was held on October 15^th which was the fourth day of the dark moon and falls 9 days before Diwali.

I never heard of this festival before and when a group I belong to brought it up, I did some research.

Karwa Chauth is actually a North Indian festival in which married women will fast from before sunrise till she can see the moon that night.  In some instances and for some families, if the moon is not visible then they will fast for a second day.

Absolutely no water or food is taken at this time, although some will drink lemon water for digestive reasons.

But I found something interesting.  Karwa Chauth did not start as a fast for the longevity of one’s husband.  It was actually started for a much different reason.

In India, not too long ago, women would be married at a young age and move to their Husband’s home to live with him and his family.  Usually this would be far removed from the young woman’s own village, family and friends, leaving her alone in a new place to deal with the traditions, rituals and expectations of a new family.

Because there were no phones, internet or even trustworthy transportation, the young women were truly isolated.

So, a woman from the new village would be chosen to be a God-friend or God-sister (friend or sister by God).  This bond would be created during the marriage to her new husband with a ceremony to link the two women together for life.

These two women would bond over issues with their family situations, marriages and life in general.  They were the outlets that were needed when it wasn’t provided by the husband and his family.

Eventually, fasting for one’s husband and extra activities were added to the festival.  Some say that it adapted to honor the husband who brought the friendship into being.  Other’s thought that it was a way to offer acceptance for a strictly female based tradition into a patriarchal society.

Either way, today it has become a festival celebrated by many the world over, whether your heritage is North Indian or not.  Special puja’s and thali decorations, elaborate henna designs, new clothes and jewelry, kajol and sindoor and gifts from other brides and one’s husband.

My husband’s family does not celebrate this festival.  Our main fasting day is Teej and it is during this time that I fast all day for my husband.

What is your family traditions surrounding fasting for a spouses well-being and longevity?  Do you both fast?  Are you allowed anything during this, like fruit, sabudana, potato chips or water?

Happy Belated Karwa Chauth!