Celebrating borther-sister relationship is a part of Vedic culture observed most of the families who like this culture. It is observed with zeal in Indiain subcontinent, nowadays mostly in remote villages. Naamhat Boxtel promotes this and invited on 18th October about fifty Bhutanese and about 50 Nepalese living in The Netherlands to celebrate together. However only one of them gave the emphasis and its was celebrated -see Video.
Vedic culture embraces everyone to celebrate as one family. The belief isthat all the human beings are one family, including animals because everyone of us are but children of God. God is One however we call him in different names according to individuals'understanding and language. Relation is something special that remains eternal. Everthing on earth can one day ends up, but relationship is not a temporary bond. A mother is always a mother. A sister is always a sister. If the relationship is not repected the society fall in chaos and war breaks out. The imminent relation to celebrate is that we all re children of God Krsna, supreme father.
To encourage family bond, men invites to their sisters during Teej festival. Then the sisters invite their brothers for Tihar festival, ie during the festival of light, by putting Rakshabandan. In between this men and women go to meet their elderly people and priests during Dasara and seek their blessings. This invitation to celebrate brother/sister relationship is not limited within blood brother sisters. They invite to come into this family bond anyone they like irrespective of caste, color, faith and ethinicity. The sanctity of such bond depends on the character of the individual. So the ISKCON dedicates to build up good character, the qualities of devotees.
The blessings of females to men on this occassion override the will and poewer of the Yamaraj. There is long story in the Puran how a little girl defeated Yamaraj, the lord of death and protected her brother. During this festival, bhaitika, the sisters to their brothers, daughters to their father and nees to their uncles prays and offers vegetarian dishes to the Saligram Lord Vishnu. The prominent Shalogram is the Goverdhan Giri mount worshipped a day before. )see next video' She then offers that dishes to her brothers, applies oil to his hair and decorates his forehead with auspicious colors and dresses him. They also then bless eachother in the same way. Gifts are exchanged. In this way the Vedic culture renews the friendly relations and promote peace and harmoney in the society.
This tradition existed eternally, but it became more prominent from the reign of Sri Ram, the Lord from treta yug. Tradition, mostly in Nepal say that when Sri Ram won against the evil elements of the society, his victory was sung by young people visiting every homes in the night of the festival of light. Lights were lit through out that night to welcome Sita, the goddess of fortune, Lakshmi in every homes. For bringing the message of Sri Sita ram and reminding the ramayana those men were then honoured the next morning by their sisters, daughters and nees. This traditon deserves more attention becasue it is gradually vanishing due to modernisation.
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