Ganesha Chaturthi today (basically, Ganesha's birthday)! I'm not super religious, but I do find joy, peace, and solace in celebrating the rituals I was raised with.
It was a teaching day, so I moved pooja until after work. I always fast on Ganesh Chaturthi until I can break my fast with the pooja offering, so it did mean that I fasted all day. It was extra interesting because I brought pumpkin cake and almond pastries to work to celebrate.
But I survived hunger (and temptation), came home, made dinner, made a prasad-and-fruit-plate for pooja, had a peaceful pooja, and a nice dinner (and later cuddle) with the fam.
#AdventuresInPracticingAMinorityReligion. There's a new Michigan bill that would make more minority religious holidays official state holidays. I appreciate how considerate that is, but also, the religious observances in Hinduism are so numerous, I doubt it it'll make more than a dent. Ha.
* Title: I love the sloka that compares the brightness of this god of beginnings to "ten million suns."
Pic: Huck and Max planning to take naps on me. (And yes, we got a third couch for the rumpus room so we can all sprawl a little more.)
7 comments:
Cute puppies.
Oh, happy day!
My kids went to a school that was very multicultural, and I thought about it a lot, how the holidays are all Christian. My son mentioned (months ago, obviously) that there were only 5 kids in his sports performance class and when I wondered about that, he said "Mom, it's Eid!" Duh! Of course! But it's too bad that the big celebrations for non-Christian religions are not observed by a holiday.
I once had a student named Pooja, but I didn't know it had another meaning until I looked it up after reading this post. Thanks for the education.
Gillian--thank you! I love them.
Nicole--I love that our kids are growing up in a multicultural world and they *get* it better than we do even! I have so much faith they will make the world better.
Steph--That is a super popular name! I briefly debated glossing it, but realized it was easily explained on the internets.
I also love the rituals from my childhood and wish we did more stuff like that with our own kids.
Even if *some* minority religions got a single federal holiday, it would be amazing for those religions to get some recognition. Come on, does Christianity need Easter AND Christmas?
Happy celebration.
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