A HoIi Festival As Tradition In Hinduism
Everyone has their own religious and family traditions, such as Hinduism, Christianity, or Islam. As I grew up, I learned about all the religions, but I mainly learned about Hinduism. I will be discussing the Hindu religion because it is the one I belong to. For this research paper, I interviewed my Mother, my Father, and my Grandparents. I interviewed them so that I could gather more information about the Hindu religion. I will be talking about the Hindu religious tradition of not eating meat, the spiritual practice of marriage, and the holiday that the Hindu religion traditionally celebrates, which is Holi. This paper will discuss the Hindu religious traditions of abstaining from red meat, marriage, and the holiday Holi, which my family and I no longer keep up with because of 21st- century limitations and differences in U.S. culture.
The Hinduism followers started abstaining from meat almost fifty years ago. This tradition began after believing that the Cow is a god for all the Hinduism followers and reading Hindu holy books. The Cow is a big part of the Hindu religion, and as a tradition, we do not allow any beef, pork, goat, and lamb consumption. The belief is that eating meat is like hurting and killing animals. Most of the Hindus were vegetarian in the 1970s as they always avoided any beef. The history of the Cow and Hinduism is still complicated in this generation, but nowadays, all the Hindu people follow their own rules of eating any meats like pork, beef, goat, etc. After the 21st century, most Hindu people who wanted to eat meat started eating meat independently. They began to travel to U.S. Today, fifty percent of Hinduism followers are vegetarians, and the other fifty percent are non-vegetarians. Therefore, there is a mix of meat and vegetarian diets, regardless of whether these followers believe in God or not. As far as my parents, they eat only vegetarian food.
The Hindu religion’s wedding traditions are unique because they are long-lasting and full of energy and movement. Hindu religion wedding ceremonies are unique because the wedding ceremonies go on for three days. The first day is celebrated as the Ganesh Pooja, where all the close relatives gather up for the event. The second day is celebrated as the sangeet and mehndi ceremony. All the people from the bride’s side and the groom’s side gather together to each side while only the bride side get to celebrate the mehndi ceremony with family and close friends. The designer applies henna paste on the bride’s feet and hands. After henna is used, the bride side sees the color of mehndi, and if the color of mehndi is darker, they believe the husband loves her so much, and the wedding is more potent than they think. The family and friends gather to perform on stage to dance and sing to celebrate the sangeet from each side. The third day is the main ceremony and reception party, where the bride and groom begin their rituals by praying to Ganesha. Then, the couple trades the Jai Mala after the bride is decorated with Mangala Sutra. Lastly, the bride and groom’s outfits are tied as they begin to circle the ceremonial fire seven times. Nowadays, most Hindu weddings do not last long for three days as many people try to get it done in one day, or they do the civil marriage and go to civil court for the wedding where only close family members are invited. In other words, the Hindu religion wedding ceremony has changed from three days of celebration to only one-day festivals.
The Hindu religion traditionally celebrates Holi as one of the most famous festivals in India as a holiday. The history of celebrating Holi began before the birth of Christ. They call Holi the colors of festivals and colors of love as they celebrate all over India. This festival is celebrated for two days; the first day is celebrated as Holika Dahan, and the second day is celebrated as Dhuleti. The first day is celebrated as Holika Dahan because all the Indian people gather in one place after sunset where they present the bonfire and do puja as they call for prayers. Then, they light the bonfire to represent the victory of good over evil. The second day is celebrated as Dhuleti because they celebrate this day where all the people play with water balloons, pichkaris, and colors. On this day, people hang out to put colors on each other’s faces and bodies. Also, people fill balloons and pichkaris with water and colors to play with their groups of friends. Some people gather to dance, and some play music to enjoy the festival. The last time I experienced this festival when I was in India in 2015. I have been in the U.S. for five years and have not celebrated the festival since then. I consider the Holi festival one of my favorite festivals. Nowadays, Indian people do not celebrate this festival due to the colors because some people are allergic to the colors as they use the chemical in them. Finally, this festival is the most famous festival out of other festivals in India because they celebrate this festival with love, pride, and joy.
In conclusion, I will try not to renew any of the traditions because this is a new generation, and practice is always good for the people. Hinduism is still avoiding eating meat because of the Holy book, and they are the followers of Cow. When it comes to Hindu wedding tradition, I agree with the new change of a three-day wedding to a one-day wedding because in this generation mostly all the people are worried about finances, so they go for the civil marriage. The celebration of Holi is not worth it in this generation because most people are allergic to the new colors, so they no longer celebrate.
