PDA

View Full Version : Temple Festivals



Eastern Mind
12 June 2010, 01:18 PM
Vannakkam:

I thought I would share that our ten day festival started last night. Each evening, except for Sunday mornings, we have homa, abhishekham, bhajan, vasantha mandapam deity parade, final aarti, and a meal prasadam. Last night went quickly and was over in 4 hours. It's a joyous time. A lot of people come every night. We have live thavil and nadeswaram musicians. They really add a lot to it. This year they are a pair from Trichy, and Tanjore respectively.

The temple is having a temple cart made for the kumbabhishekam in 2 years time. It's hard to believe the present temple is 10 years old this year.

Here is a link to a past festival date with lots of pictures of the parade. Scroll down to near the bottom.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.himalayanacademy.com/taka/past/2004/June/June_22_2004/Pana0133.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.himalayanacademy.com/taka/past/2004/June/June_22_2004/&usg=__0k9itCuAtDegFN7jHr9tB4oX9gg=&h=375&w=500&sz=20&hl=en&start=17&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=zMvtMpMI_UBOsM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3DEdmonton%2BMaha%2BGanapati%2B%252B%2BKauai%2BAadheenam%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfi refox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1
Aum Namasivaya

NayaSurya
12 June 2010, 04:52 PM
Wonderful pictures, I bet you have been very busy getting things ready!

Happy Anniversary!

Eastern Mind
12 June 2010, 05:35 PM
Vannakkam Nayasurya:

The organizational end of it is really truly amazing. I'm fairly privy to it. People come early to cook, people are assigned to cleanup. There is garland distribution to the various shrines, archana tray making, and on and on. Many people have one assigned or' inherited task', and they just go about their business doing that one thing without getting noticed. Even who carries (the parade murthi) is down to a T. Names are drawn from the sponsors, and everyone gets some sort of job. The only glich last night was that Ganesha had had a larger platform made to stand on over the year. Biut no one thought about the platform on top of mushika that Ganesha rides on . So mushika got a well deserved break last night, and Ganesha had to ride the cart alone. Bright and early this morning a volunteer carpenter was there to redo the platform on mushika so it is corrected tonight.

My personal job is to wave the smoky (really smoky, I forget its name.. a resin like stuff, made into powder,) The Indians here would know the name.) then put on coals. It takes a while to get it ready, but then I get to walk immediately in front of Ganesha throughout the whole parade. It is supposed to purify the atmosphere. I must need a lot of purifying.

Aum Namasivaya

shian
15 June 2010, 04:07 AM
i have joined Rthrayatra (for Jaganath) in Bali

i hope i can joined another India religious festival ^_^

Eastern Mind
15 June 2010, 07:53 AM
Aum:

Well, I missed it least night. First time in over two years. I just didn't feel right. But thenm about 15 minutes after Boss went, I got a phone call from a cousin who shares a bit in my beliefs, at least respects them. First time we had talked in 7 or 8 years, maybe more. So at least I found out why I felt 'off'.

On Sunday I experienced the camera happy Indian who 'had' to take my wife and my picture. Two of the only four white skinned people in the crowd of 400. When I asked why they wanted to take my picture, I think they felt embarrassed. Siva's dance of ethnicity and barriers is such a great movie!

Aum Namasivaya

Eastern Mind
19 July 2013, 06:28 PM
Vannakkam: Today is day 7 of this year's annual festival. It is the 13th year of the 10 day festival. Highlights this year include the activation of the kodimaram, first run of the new ther, (chariot) and doubling the festival time to mornings as well as evenings. Morning pujas go from 8:30 until 12:30, and the evening one goes from about 5 until 10:30. I have only been making the morning pujas. a few hard core people and the priests, of course, have been going practically non-stop. We have 5 priests, and the rites are too numerous and varied to really go into detail. Besides, I hardly understand any of them. But the temple is getting very agamic in nature.

Usually about 50 people get there in the morning and 200 to 300 in the evenings. This weekend will be packed. As usual, the thavil and nadeswaram live musicians are here. That always adds to the flavor of the place a lot.

If you ever want a cheaper trip to TN, this would be the place, and time. My friend, one of the priests, but a lay priest, whose grandfather quit the priesthood to feed his kids near Tanjore (the middle one in our logo) about 60 years back and became a lawyer for the Supreme court of India, said that even in India he would never get this close to the 'action'.

Aum Namasivaya

Believer
19 July 2013, 07:18 PM
Namaste,

Thanks for the descriptive post.

Today is day 7 of this year's annual festival........If you ever want a cheaper trip to TN, this would be the place, and time.
It is about time you told us about this cheap trip to TN, when the festival is almost over! ;)

Pranam.

Eastern Mind
19 July 2013, 07:23 PM
Namaste,

Thanks for the descriptive post.

It is about time you told us about this cheap trip to TN, when the festival is almost over! ;)

Pranam.

Vannakkam: Always next year. We did flag hoisting for the first time, too, and then on Monday is the water cutting ceremony. I have to go see that one for sure because I can't get a good description from friends when I ask, "How exactly do you cut water?"

Aum Namasivaya