FESTIVALS: THE JHARKHANDI WAY

Our country ‘India’ is known to be the ‘land of festivals’ that is, it’s specially is its different festivals. Each and every state and religion has its own and different festival and it is celebrated by all with equal joy and enthusiasm and perhaps this is why, we have unity in diversity and festivals play a very important role in maintaining this unity and relationships. Besides national festivals, each state and region has its own festival which reflects the people’s thoughts, beliefs, their customs and attitude towards life. Jharkhand is known for its natural beauty and bounties and for the people here, nature or better say ‘ Mother Nature’ is everything and its celebrate this gift, they celebrate various festivals such as Sarhul, Karam etc. Now talking about Sarhul, this is the main festival of Jharkhand. ‘Jharkhand’ as the name suggests is a state where forests have the major value, and to honor these forests only, people celebrate Sarhul. Sarhul is celebrated during spring season when the ‘saal’ trees get new flowers on their branches. Like any other tribe, people sing and dance because this very spring is the basis for this upcoming year and to have a successful year; people worship deity with saal flowers. He takes his ritual bath and wears his new dhoti made up of virgin cotton or Kachcha Dhagaa. He takes three earthen pots and observes these with water inside, if the water level decreases, he predicts that there would be famine or less rain, and if it is normal, it signals good rain. Another popular festival of Jharkhand is ‘jitiya’. Since time immemorial, the holy festival of Jivitputrika popularly known as Jitiya is being observed by the women for the long life and welfare of their children. Jitiya is performed in the Krishna Paksh of the Ashwin month on the eight day or the Ashtmi Tithi. So, Jharkhand is where festivals are not just celebrated but felt spiritually and internally, not just enjoyed physically but our soul loves them too.

Festivals: The Jharkhandi Way
Vanya
IX, St. Thomas School

Our city Ranchi has many historical monuments and temples like Deori Mandir, Sun Temple, Rajrappa Temple etc. Sun Temple is situated about thirty- nine km far from Ranchi. There is a village near the temple called Bhundu. This temple has been built by Sanskrit Vihar headed by the Shri Ram Maroo, the managing director of Ranchi Express. This is a very beautiful place to spend holiday with family. Elegant Sun temple in Ranchi, in the architectural form of a mammoth vehicle with eighteen wheels driven by seven horses is placed in a lush green lawn. The landscape is charming and the surrounding is very attractive. There is a sacred pond with calm and clean water, many devotees take holy dip in this pond to wash away the sins. The temple is termed as a poem written on a stone so beautiful. a beautiful Dharamshala for pilgrims is under construction.

Sun Temple
Smriti Tejaswee
IX, St. Thomas School