Festival of Lights, Sat. Nov. 10th

[Guest guest]

Krishna Temple, S. Main St, Spanish Fork,

Sat. Nov 10th, 6pm

The Indian New Year is traditionally heralded with the Festival of Lights

(Dipa=lights & Wali=festival, idiomatic version, Deewali). Households put

lamps in every window and temples brightly illuminate altars to bring in the

best for the upcoming year. Also the date of the festival coincides with the

return of the avatar of God, Sri Rama, to His ancestral kingdom after an

exile of 14 years and many adventures. All the citizens welcomed Ram¹s

return home by brightening up the entire city of Ayodhya and setting off

fireworks.

The New Year occurs during the lull between fall harvests and the onset of

the monsoons. Thus it is a time of thanksgiving, and that corollary festival

is called Anna Kuta (literally meaning, ³heaps of Food²) Lord Krishna

inaugurated this festival by inspiring the inhabitants of His village

(Vrndavan) to worship the cows on this one day per year and to prepare a

huge celebratory feast consisting of no less than 108 preparations.

Observing the above traditions, the schedule of events for this dual

celebration is as follows:

6:00pm pm Fire Sacrifice: grains, seeds, etc from the creation of the Lord

are offered back to Him through the medium of fire-very colorful

6:30 pm Govardhan puja: Krishna once lifted a mountain named Govardhan

and used it as an umbrella to protect His devotees from a devastating

rainfall sent by Indra the king of heaven. This pastime is commemorated by

circumambulating a large hill made from a sweet called hallava, and

decorated with other sweets, savories, plastic cows, jelly bean rocks,

broccoli spear trees, green coconut grass etc.

7:00 pm Classical Indian dance performance (Bharata Natyam) by

Ramya Harishankar, head of the Premier Arpana School of Dance of Los

Angeles, Califonrnia. 7:45 pm: Dance by Anju Thapaliya

8:00 pm.. Anna Kuta: Lights in the temple room are turned down and the

altar area, is opened dramatically to the sounds of conch shells being blown

and gongs sounding, to reveal a food extravaganza of 108 preparations

offered to the Deities. The whole show is illuminated by flashing colored

lights and dozens of votive candles. Arotik ceremony: continuing the mood of

offering back to the Lord what is rightfully His, this ³ceremony of bells²

offers to His Form on the altar incense,camphor, ghee lamps, pure water,

flower, fragrance, and peacock feather fan, as well as whisk made from the

tail of a yak.

8:10 pm. Go-Puja, Worship of a live cow with flower garlands and sweets.

Indian culture is that instead of killing the cows for 700 lbs of their

meat, they are respected for producing an average of 90,000 lbs of

nutritional wholesome milk in a lifetime. And because we all drink the milk

of a cow in our infancy, the cow is regarded as a sort of mother.

8:15 pm Huge vegetarian feast enjoyed by all participants. Samosa, pakora,

rasgula, saag paneer, puri, sandesh, hallava, papadam, kher, matar paneer,

alou gobi sabji ,kofta, malpura, gulabjamun, and on and on...

8:45 pm. Garba, Folk Dancing in the Temple Room

 

 

Please note our new email address is carudas (AT) earthlink (DOT) net.

Visit our web site at http://www.iskcon.net/utah.

Best wishes,

Caru das and Vaibhavi