HPI
KAUAI, HI, USA, April 13, 2011: If you celebrate the New Year often enough, does time move faster? Maybe not, though Hindus can say it certainly makes it more enjoyable.
Particularly in North India, many celebrate New Year on the day after Diwali, which signifies hope and new beginnings. There are other dates still. But nearly everyone joins the celebrations in mid-April, which are the most common in India.
As Indians of the diaspora mix and mingle around the world, differences that used to be cultural and geographic are left behind in the light of the traits that unite Hindus: their common religion and values. Nowadays you will see Gujaratis joining their Tamil friends for a Hindu festival in Canada, for example, and Hinduism is stronger for that.
Therefore, we at Hinduism Today wish you all a happy New Year!
Read more about New Year celebrations here and download free pdfs ready for the media. An excerpt:
Like many ancient cultures, most Hindus traditionally observe the start of each new year with the arrival of spring, which occurs in mid-April in South Asia. That day coincides with the Sun’s entrance into the constellation Mesha (Aries), the first sign in Hindu astrology. Follow ing this astrological calculation, the celebration falls on April 14 in most years.
Hindus don new clothes, exchange sweets, gifts and greetings of goodwill. They clean their homes and decorate the entrance and shrine room with beautiful, colorful patterns called kolam or rangoli, symbols of auspiciousness. They visit temples, beseeching God and the Gods for blessings for the year ahead. The Goddess Lakshmi and the elephant-headed God Ganesha are especially venerated on this day. In some communities, elders give money to youth and children as a token of good luck–making the year’s first financial act selfless and thus auspicious. Families feast together with great revelry, enjoying elaborate dishes and good company. People gather to listen to interpretations of the star’s positions and auguries of things to come, for in this culture the Hindu calendar is closely interwoven with astrology. An elder or a learned astrologer may read the family’s fortune for the next 12 months, and predictions are even given on Indian television.
Read more here.