On the full moon day in Au­gust, Rak­sha Band­han is cel­e­brat­ed. This fes­ti­val could be termed Broth­er’s Day, when sis­ters tie a thread on the broth­er’s wrist, ap­ply tilak and of­fer sweets. They wish him long life. In rec­i­p­ro­ca­tion, broth­ers give gifts. This fes­ti­val is sym­bol­ic of sis­ters wish­ing their broth­ers long life, and broth­ers of­fer­ing sis­ters pro­tec­tion.

Rak­sha Band­han is al­so ex­pressed be­tween close friends, ex­press­ing af­fec­tion. The Rak­sha (fem­i­nine) tied around the wrist for the pre­ven­tion of dis­tress, de­struc­tion or mis­for­tune, Band­han [mas­cu­line].

Kr­ish­na Jana­mash­ta­mi, al­so known as Kr­ish­nash­ta­mi or Jana­mash­ta­mi, is the Hin­du fes­ti­val that cel­e­brates the birth of Kr­ish­na. Kr­ish­na has of­ten been re­ferred to as the Supreme God.

The cel­e­bra­tion of Jana­mash­ta­mi in­cludes devo­tees fast­ing, read­ing and recita­tion of re­li­gious text, dance, and de­vo­tion­al singing un­til mid­night [Kr­ish­na birth]. Fig­urines de­pict­ing the birth of Kr­ish­na are made in many tem­ples and homes.

An im­por­tant fes­ti­val cel­e­brat­ed is Ganesh Chaturthi, which is a nine-day fes­ti­val mark­ing the birth of the de­ity with the ele­phant head, Ganesh, the God of pros­per­i­ty and wis­dom. Vedic hymns and re­li­gious texts are chant­ed, the idols are anoint­ed with red san­dal­wood paste and yel­low and red flow­ers. Peo­ple es­tab­lish Ganesh tem­ples in their homes and build­ings and in­vite rel­a­tives and friends for prayers and de­vo­tion­al singing. On the ninth day (some fam­i­lies do it be­fore this), the idol is car­ried to the sea, riv­er or in­land body of wa­ter and im­mersed there.

Pitri Paksh is 15 days of Shrad­dh, ded­i­cat­ed to re­mem­ber­ing our fore­fa­thers and an­ces­tors. Tarpan—of­fer­ing of wa­ter, milk, rice, sesame seeds, and flow­ers—are made, us­ing kush grass [used in rit­u­als for pu­rifi­ca­tion]. Dur­ing this pe­ri­od, no aus­pi­cious work is done. This cer­e­mo­ny is done dur­ing the dark fort­night of Ashvin.

Nav Raa­tri is the an­nu­al fes­ti­val ob­served in ho­n­our of God­dess Dur­ga, the Supreme God­dess. There are a to­tal of four Nav Raa­tris in a year, but on­ly two Chaitra [March/April] and Sharadiya [Sep­tem­ber/Oc­to­ber] are wide­ly cel­e­brat­ed. They are cel­e­brat­ed with prayers, singing and danc­ing.

Prayers are of­fered for nine days, as is cus­tom­ary amongst fam­i­lies. Many ob­serve fasts on all days. Some ob­serve them on se­lect days. Tem­ples with huge idols of the God­dess are erect­ed. Young girls are of­fered food at the con­clu­sion of prayers. At the end of the cel­e­bra­tions, the idols are im­mersed in near­by rivers or the sea.

Dashera marks the vic­to­ry of Lord Ram over Ra­vana and is cel­e­brat­ed on the tenth day. This fes­ti­val is cel­e­brat­ed through­out In­dia with gai­ety. It is sym­bol­ic of the vic­to­ry of good over evil. It is cus­tom­ary to build huge ef­fi­gies of Ra­vana, his broth­er Kumbhkaran and son Megh­nath, and con­sign them to flames ac­com­pa­nied by fire­works.

On the eighth day af­ter Dashera, most Hin­du ladies ob­serve the Kar­va Chauth fast for the long life of their hus­bands. This is one of the strictest fasts ob­served by ladies. It is con­sid­ered to be a ro­man­tic fes­ti­val sym­bol­is­ing the love be­tween hus­band and wife.

Di­vali sym­bol­is­es the spir­i­tu­al vic­to­ry of Dhar­ma over Ad­har­ma.

From dark­ness to light, good over evil, good deeds bring us clos­er to Di­vin­i­ty.

Di­vali is of­ten re­ferred to in In­dia, and by ex­ten­sion the Hin­du di­as­po­ra world­wide, as the most im­por­tant fes­ti­val of the year. The five days of Di­vali are marked by prayers, fire­works, fam­i­ly gath­er­ings and giv­ing of char­i­ty. It al­so marks the be­gin­ning of the New Year.

Di­vali is known world­wide as the “Fes­ti­val of Lights,” from the San­skrit word “Di­pavali, mean­ing a “row of lights.”

Di­vali is a time to re­flect on life and make changes for the up­com­ing year. There are a num­ber of cus­toms that we main­tain each year. Give and for­give where the wrong­do­ings of oth­ers are for­got­ten and for­giv­en. Unite and uni­fy, Di­vali of­ten soft­ens the hard­est of hearts, al­low­ing for joy and em­brac­ing.

On this day, the lights of Di­vali al­so sig­ni­fy a time of in­ner il­lu­mi­na­tion. Di­vali is al­so as­so­ci­at­ed with the re­turn of Lord Ra­ma to Ay­o­d­hya af­ter 14 years of ex­ile.

The day af­ter Di­vali is cel­e­brat­ed as Goward­han Pu­ja. Cows and bul­locks are dec­o­rat­ed, and of­fered spe­cial feed. It is a thanks­giv­ing to them by the farm­ing class for their sup­port in their work. Many of­fer prayers to Vish­vakar­ma on this day.

Two days af­ter Di­vali Bhai Dooj is cel­e­brat­ed. Again, this is a fes­ti­val ded­i­cat­ed to broth­ers, where sis­ters ap­ply tilak on the broth­er’s fore­head and wish them good health and long life. It was on this day that Ram was for­mal­ly de­clared the king of Ay­o­d­hya.