Eruvaka Purnima
This is a special festival celebrated mainly by the farmers and agriculturists. It falls on the full moon day in the month of Ashadha.
Agriculturists worship the yoke, the plough and the bulls with turmeric and kumkum.
Coconuts are broken either at home or in the field, in-front of the yokes and bulls.
They inaugurate the annual cultivation by ploughing five or nine rounds in their fields on this day, as it is supposed to be an auspicious day auguring fresh showers.
They also cook payasam, a small dish and enjoy it with their children and relatives.
In some parts of the country cultivators worship the bullock.
They wash the cattle, smear and decorate the hooves and horns with oil and a variety of colours and feed them with pulagam (rice, green gram dal and sesame cooked together).
The bodies are also decorated gaily with coloured circles and designs.
Little bells are tied to their horns and necks and they are driven out into the open space to wander and run about.
The tillers take home a part of the festoon that is tied to the village gate, after the cattle pass under it as a talisman for the ensuring year.
Children collect seeds a week in advance and sow them in the corners of the temple.
By the festival day, the young plants sprout and a few of these tender plants are taken home by the tillers and kept in their granaries for a prosperous crop during the coming year.
The gaily dressed people and the colourfully decorated cattle make the village a grand spectacle of colour and pageantry.
0 comments:
Post a Comment