Advertisement
 |
| Goddess Saraswati |
- This festival celebrates the arrival of spring season with great enthusiasm
- It takes place on the fifth day after the new moon
- Spring, the king of seasons is warmly welcomed by the Maithils
- Saraswathi, the goddess of learning and fine arts is worshipped especially by student community
- Abir or Gulal is thrown on friends or relatives
- From this day people in groups in rural areas sing Phag, a kind of folk song sung only in the month of Magh after Panchami till the end of Phagun
- The fields during this time are worth-seeing with the crop of waving mustard
- People wear yellow dresses on this occasion
- most popular day of the year for weddings in some areas
- The day before Vasant Panchami in Nepal, Sarasvati's temples are filled with food so that she can join the celebrants in the traditional feasting the following morning
- In temples and educational institutions, statues of Sarasvati are dressed in yellow and worshiped
- Most educational institutions arrange special prayers or pujas in the morning to seek blessing of the Goddess
- Poetic and musical gatherings are held and children are initiated to learn the alphabet and are often taught to write their first words
- This ritual of initiating education to children is known as Akshar-Abhyasam or Vidya-Arambham/Praasana, one of the famous rituals of Vasant Panchami
- Older students clean their pens and inkwells but abstain from reading or writing on this day
- The color yellow plays an important role in Vasant Panchami as it is related to the bloom of mustard flowers during this period
- Celebrants usually wear yellow garments
- sweet saffron rice and yellow sweets are consumed within the families
- Other associated rituals include the invitation of Brahmin to join in the lunch feast, and the performance of ancestor worship (Pitr-tarpan)
- The 40-day period between Vasant Panchami and Holi corresponds with the 40 days of Rati's penance after her husband, Kamadeva was reduced to ashes for shooting the eye of Shiva with his love arrows
- Between Vasant Panchami and Holi, preparations are made for numerous burnings in effigy of the demoness Holika
- Starting on Vasant Panchami, a log with a figure of Holika is placed in a public place and during the next 40 days, the faithful add twigs and other combustible material to the log to form a pyre which is lit on Holi
- As per another mythological story, this day Lord Rama ate half tasted berries (ber) of Shabari and to commemorate this day, the festival of Vasant Panchami is celebrated
