Two Festivals Rolled Into One

[Guest guest]

Indian New Year & Thanksgiving (Deewali & Anna KutA) (Two Festivals Rolled

Into One)

Saturday Nov. 2th, 6:00pm

Krishna Temple, 8628 S Main,

Spanish Fork 798-3559/787-1510

Free Admission to All

 

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

Deepa means Œlights¹ ). 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:

6:00 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 Comedy: Dracula gets the Straight Sauce

7:15 pm Classical Indian dance performance (Oddissi) by Saranya

Mukhadhyay and Mollika Roy, premier students of the Nandita Behara School of

Dance of Los Angeles, California.

7:45 pm Anna Kuta & Arotik ceremony: 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.

8:00 pm.. 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.

8:20 pm: Ras Garba, Indian Folk Dancing (very easy for anybody to

learn in minutes)

8:30 pm Huge vegetarian feast served downstairs while dancing goes

on upstairs. $5.00 donation per plate. Samosa, pakora, rasgula, saag

paneer, puri, sandesh, hallava, papadam, kher, matar paneer, alou gobi

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