Mahashivaratri - Hindu Festival

A big hello to all my dear readers! :)

Today was a very important day from the point of view of a Hindu. A day, with utter importance on the Hindu Calendar. The day being - Mahashivaratri!

Time for some General Knowledge about the great festival : (Although I don't believe in copy-paste, but well! Wikipedia has so nicely compiled the knowledge, that it would save me time, so I am doing it this time!)

(Of course I don't have copyright to this pic!)

Shivaratri literally means the great night of Shiva or the night of Shiva. It is celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day of the Maagha or Phalguna month of the Hindu calendar. Since many different calendars are followed by various ethno-linguistic groups of India, the month and the Tithi name are not uniform all over India. Celebrated in the dark fortnight or Krishna Paksha(waning moon) of the month of Maagha according to the Shalivahana or Gujarati Vikrama or Phalguna according to the Vikrama era. The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael or Bilva/Vilvam leaves to Lord Shiva, all day fasting and an all night long vigil. In accordance with scriptural and discipleship traditions, penances are performed in order to gain boons in the practice of Yoga and meditation, in order to reach life's summum bonum steadily and swiftly.

From the very early morning, Shiva temples are flocked by devotees, mostly women, who come to perform the traditional Shivalinga worship (puja) and hence hope for favours from the god. Devotees bathe at sunrise, preferably in the Ganga, or any other holy water source (like the Shiva Sagartank at Khajurao). This is a purificatory rite, an important part of all Hindu festivals. Wearing a clean piece of clothing after the holy bath, worshippers carry pots of water to the temple to bathe the Shivalinga. They offer prayers to the sun, Vishnu and Shiva.Women pray for the well-being of their husbands and sons. An unmarried woman prays for a husband like Shiva, who is considered to be the ideal husband. The temple reverberates with the sound of bells and shouts of “Shankerji ki Jai” meaning 'Hail Shiva'. Devotees circumambulate the linga, three or seven times, and then pour water over it. Some also pour milk.

According to the Shiva Purana, the Mahashivaratri worship must incorporate six items:

• Bathing the Shiv Linga with water, milk and honey, and Wood apple or bel leaves added to it, representing purification of the soul;
• The vermilion paste applied on the Shiv Linga after bathing it, representing virtue;
• Offering of fruits, which is conducive to longevity and gratification of desires;
• Burning incense, yielding wealth;
• The lighting of the lamp which is conducive to the attainment of knowledge;
• And betel leaves marking satisfaction with worldly pleasures.

Tripundra refers to the three horizontal stripes of holy ash applied to the forehead by worshippers of Lord Shiva. These stripes symbolise spiritual knowledge, purity and penance (spiritual practice of Yoga), so also they represent the three eyes of Lord Shiva.

Wearing a rosary made from the rudraksha seed of the rudraksha tree (said to have sprung from the tears of Lord Shiva) when worshipping Lord Shiva is ideal. A rudraksha seed is a mahogany-like color, sometimes black, and sometimes may have traces of sacred sandalwood powder, turmeric, kumkum, or holy ash if the rosary was used in worship ceremonies or anointed.

Anyways, enough of the General Knowledge, for more you can refer to the articles at the end of this one. So the thing that urged me to post this. Well, I just saw on msn, an article on the great day. The best part was that article. The article was titled - "For Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims, Shivratri bridges a gap". Kashmir is an amazing place, but has been a point of tension between India and Pakistan. Let's not go into details, things could take a turn, and the article would become endless, engulfing in itself, many other articles. (The msn article is attached at the end!).

The article is very nicely written. I was quite happy to read that the great festival was bridging the gap between the two religions who had been in a state of tension since quite long(on the contrary! I am a hindu and I have some great Muslim friends! :D )

I was rather in a mood of talking about it too, but they have completed the article so well, there is nothing I could say about it, more than that, please please please!! Read the article! :)

A big thanks for giving your precious time to read this. Hope you all had a great day! :)

You may like to check out this article for more knowledge about the Lord Shiva, and Shivaratri, and the offerings used. CLICK HERE for the article.

For legends associated with the great festival, you may refer wikipedia. CLICK HERE for the article.

You may find this article also nice. It's also about Lord Shiva, and Shivaratri. CLICK HERE

And finally the msn article that I found really worth sharing with all of you my readers. You all must read it! :) CLICK HERE for the article.