24.Holi in my hometown "

 

Holi in my hometown "

The annual car festival in my hometown  Managlore has a special significance to the Gowd Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) community as it is a commemoration of the divine union of Lord Venkataramana and Goddess Padmavathi.

Avabhruta Snana' or ‘Okkuli’ is the rituals as a part of this event ( Holi ) , in which people soak one another with colours and coloured water.

Traditionally, pouring of colour starts only after offering traditional gulal (pink) colour which is being offered to the deity when the deity presides on Vasanta Mantapa on okkul day. 

To restrict modernizing the traditional sentiment - DJs, water tankers and smearing of colours on women is prohibited in our temple .

In temple premises ,Panak is provided to devotees ..In the simplest and the most traditional form it is simply water sweetened with jaggery, flavoured with crushed cardamoms and spiced with ground black pepper. 

Made-Snana' is a ‘harake' (an offering made for fulfilment of a wish) is performed inside temple premise. In this case the offering is to roll in and  around the temple premise. Another reason this ritual is the belief that it cures skin diseases.

Bhaang is an edible preparation made from the leaves of the cannabis plant.It is traditionally distributed during the spring festival of Maha Shivaratri and Holi.

During the 5 days of Car festival and 6 th day okkul ( Holi ) , the temple food is amazing and I never used to miss this festival back then . There used to be fairs and I used to get pocket money to buy petty stuffs.

The celebration of Holi is different in coastal part of Karnataka. The innumerable stories may be different in various parts of the country. The gist of the event represents unity and a triumph of good over evil.

✍️ Priyanka Kamath

24 march 2024