Maha Shivaratri is a very important festival for us, and is celebrated across the country in various places with some different rituals. It has got another name at my place : Jagara. Though legends have different versions of the significance of this day ( such as on this day, Lord Shiva performed the heavenly dance of creation, preservation and destruction or on this day he married Parvati ), the devotees believe that praying the Lord and keeping a fasting on this day, the lord fulfills their wish). Unmarried girls and boys keep fasting in the belief that they will get a good life partner - the beauty of our culture to find a reason to do fasting at least. And then after all day fasting in the evening the devotees lighten the diyas in the temple premise and finally the main diya (Mahadipa) is taken to the top of the temple, as you can see in the video. The devotees circle around the temple seven times enchanting hymn, before the Mahadipa is taken to the top. We have this Lord Shiva temple in our society premise and this is celebrated in a grand way every year. At the end, a drink made up of fruits, milk, curd, jaggery and other nuts is served to everyone. The beautification of the temple had been going since last two weeks, to set up the perfect ambience.
Every year, a vegan feast is also served to all the members of the society. This year, it was decided to do it yesterday - the reason being ,most people will be available as it was Sunday. And I must say anything that is prepared in honor of the God at the temple has very unique and delicious taste and nobody wants to miss them.
The arrangements were done for 300 - 400 people, having several items - a Khichdi rice, a dalma ( dal with vegetables), the tomato khatta (with dates), a cauliflower fry and a sweet khir for the fine finishing. And many people generously contributed big amounts for this making this feasible. The cook came with his team of people by afternoon and made everything ready in just 4 hours. The good thing is that the society owns all these utensils and they were kept ready.
Even though people were requested to come after 7.30 pm, nobody turned around so early, so the serving started around 8.30 pm. My wife and daughter ate in the first batch, but me and my son joined late after playing badminton. The main arrangement was done to sit on the floor surrounding the temple, but then some tables were laid out for senior citizens.
Overall a great evening - I love the socialism in this kind of festivals - they are real stress busters. Everyone taking time off and joining together at one place and then that face to face discussions, laughing, gossiping - they are much better than the digital counterparts.
We stayed there till 11 pm in the night. A lot of food remained even after everyone finished eating, so residents were requested to take as much as they can. For the first time, we brought some rice and dalma, as they were available in big quantities, and today is Monday - another auspicious day.
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