Essay on My Favourite Festival Raksha Bandhan! Many festivals are celebrated in India with pomp and show. However, Raksha Bandhan is my favourite festival. It is a simple festival, but it has a great significance in the life of Hindu men and women. Raksha Bandhan is celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan (July-August). It is also known by many other names, such as Rakhi, Rakhri, Lakhri, Saluno etc. It is not exactly known how this festival came to be celebrated. There is a tale in the Puranas that once in the battle between gods and demons, the demons were winning. At that time, Indrani, the wife of God Indra, tied a charmed thread round Indra’s wrist. With this, Indra grew very powerful and defeated the demons.
Essay on My Favourite Festival Raksha Bandhan
Many festivals are celebrated in India with pomp and show. However, Raksha Bandhan is my favourite festival. It is a simple festival, but it has a great significance in the life of Hindu men and women.
Raksha Bandhan is celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan (July-August). It is also known by many other names, such as Rakhi, Rakhri, Lakhri, Saluno etc.
It is not exactly known how this festival came to be celebrated. There is a tale in the Puranas that once in the battle between gods and demons, the demons were winning. At that time, Indrani, the wife of God Indra, tied a charmed thread round Indra’s wrist. With this, Indra grew very powerful and defeated the demons.
At present, it is a sort of sisters’ day, when a sister ties a sacred thread, called rakhi, round the wrist of her brother. The festival symbolizes the love and affection that binds sisters to their brothers.
Many days before this festival, stalls are set up in the markets on which beautiful and colourful rachis are displayed. These stalls are thronged by women of all ages who buy these rachis for their watering sweets.
On the full moon day of Shravan, a girl rises early. She takes a bat and gets ready in her best dress. By then her brother is also ready. She puts a rakhi and sweets in a plate. Covering her head with a dupatta, she sits before her brother. She puts a saffron tilak and daubs rice on this forehead. Then she ties the colourful rakhi on his wrist. Then she picks up a piece of sweetmeat and playfully stuffs it in his mouth.
The brother, in turn, puts some money or other gift in the plate as a mark of his affection. He also pledges to guard her honour and self-respect until the last drop of his blood. At this time, the girl blesses her brother with long life, progress and prosperity. Until this time, she observes fast. Only after this, she eats any food.
No matter where a brother may be on this day, he must tie the rakhi round his wrist. The sanctity of this festival can be seen from the fact that if a girl ties a rakhi on the wrist of a young man totally stranger to her, both of them regard each other as brother and sister to the end of their lives and consider themselves closer than all other blood relations.
The brother wears the rakhi on his wrist until the evening.
There are many incidents to show the sanctity of this festival, when brothers sacrificed themselves in order to protect the hour of their sisters. One of the most famous historical events is that of Rani Karmavati. Once Bahadur Shah besieged the kingdom of Rani Karmavati. She felt hopeless as her army ws small and weak. So, she sent a rakhi to the Mughal Emperor Humayun. Humayun immediately proceeded to Mewar to protect her new sister. However, the Rani had immolated herself ofn the funeral pyre by that time. Humayun was grief-stricken, but he pursued Bahadur Shah and routed his army.
You know that our fathers fought for freedom from the British. During our freedom struggle, many women tied rachis on men’s wrists and made them to pledge that they would fight until freedom was achieved.
This may not be a very happy day for those sisters who have no brothers, or those brothers who have no sisters, but then, they tie or get tied rachis and thus enter a sacred bond of brother and sister with other people.
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