VASANT PANCHAMI

Also known as Magh Shukla Panchami or Saraswati Puja or Shree Panchami th th Every year this celebration is in the month of Magh (January February). This year it comes on 14 / 15 February 2013. Vasant Panchami is centered on the Hindu goddess Saraswati.

Saraswati: Goddess Saraswati is the consort of Lord Brahma (Lord of Creation) and is the goddess of wisdom and learning. Saraswati is the one who gives the essence (sara) of our own self (swa). She is considered as the personification of all knowledge - arts, sciences, crafts and other skills. She has a beautiful and elegant presence, is pure white in colour, clad in a white sari, seated on a white lotus, representing purity and brilliance. She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has the sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus (a symbol of true knowledge) in the second. With her other two hands she plays the music of love and life on the veena. She is dressed in white (sign of purity) and rides on a white goose (swan). The swan is known for its peculiar characteristic of being capable of separating water from milk, indicating that we should possess discrimination in separating the bad from the good. The seat being a lotus or peacock implies that the teacher is well-established in the subjective experience of truth. When sitting on a peacock she reminds us that wisdom suppresses ego.

Season and Colour: Vasant Panchami is a famous festival that marks the end of the winter season and ushers in the spring time.This is the festival that marks the first day of spring. The whole place bursts with yellow during the festival. The colour yellow holds a special meaning for this celebration as it signifies the brilliance of nature and the vibrancy of life. Men, women and girls wear yellow cloth and they offer yellow flowers to others and to the gods and goddesses. They also prepare and feast on a special pastry called kesar halwa, which is made from flour, sugar, nuts and cardamom powder. This dish also includes saffron strands, which gives it a vibrant yellow colour and mild fragrance. During the Vasant Panchami festival, Indias crop fields are filled with the colour yellow, as the yellow mustard flowers bloom at this time of the year. Pens, notebooks, and pencils are placed near the goddess Devi's feet to be blessed before they are used by students. The yellow colour is a sign of auspiciousness and spirituality. It represents the ripening of the spring crops. All the folk get together and sing songs connected with spring. All get up in the early morning, take bath and worship the sun, Mother Ganga, the Deity of the sacred river Ganges, and the earth.

Burning of God Cupid: On this memorable day, Lord Shiva burnt the god of love, Cupid. The gods had sent Cupid to tempt the Lord while he was absorbed in Samadhi, in order to beget a powerful son who would be able to destroy the wicked demon Tarakasura. Cupid discharged an arrow at Lord Shiva from behind a tree. Shiva became very greatly enraged. He opened His third eye and reduced Cupid to ashes. Kite Festival: In Ferozepur (Punjab) it is also as a Kite Festival in Border Area city of Punjab Ferozepur. This Festival is very famous in the city as boys and girls buy Dora (Thread) and Gude aka Patang (Kites) in huge quantity to fly. Children as well as young boys like this festival very much. Young boys by putting sound system on their terrace start dancing right from the evening of the previous day of Basant (vasantpanchami), colour full kites in the sky makes the sky very colour full and worth seeing. Akshar Abhyasam: People worship Goddess Saraswati to get enlighten with knowledge and to get rid of lethargy, sluggishness and ignorance. Traditionally during this festival children are taught to write their first words. This ritual of initiating education to children is known as Akshar-Abhyasam or Vidya-Arambham/Praasana which is one of the famous rituals of VasantPanchami. Schools and colleges arrange pujas in the morning to seek blessing of the Goddess.