Dedicated
to Kris who like a beautiful chorus of a bird filled our hearts with joy and
left us yearning to hear more. God bless you with peace
In
the Presence of Light
There is a
crowd in the banks
Gathered before
a thick fog to thank the one who sustains
The
Dhansiri river runs its course down with the gravity of nature
The dawn is
here
It appears like a chariot drawn by pink and
crimson horses
Young and
brazen forward she comes baring her breasts
The oil
lamps burn on top of baskets filled with offer
And the
trucks wheel up to the sand mines to carry their load of civilization
Some Women take
a bold dip into the cold river
With their prayers to perform an ancient
ritual
Steadfast
to their abstinence and fasting
That
started the day of the setting sun when Time itself first surfaced
Hoping it will
bring the sun to rise today from its hiatus in dark
The source of
light and darkness
Form and
formlessness
Death and
Life
Into
awakening
Amidst
folk songs and Bollywood medleys
With the
strength of a pyramid made out of bamboo
And the women
fasting without life’s elixir inside it
And as vibrant
as the colorful paper tassels which surround it
As light
becomes life
Chhath Puja is
one of the most important festivals celebrated across northern India and Terai
regions of southern Nepal. However many
diaspora communities from these regions have taken this age old tradition
beyond its original cultural geography to places far and wide both at home and
abroad. The festival is celebrated on the sixth day of
the month of Kartika of the lunar calendar and roughly around October in the
Gregorian calendar. The word Chhath Puja thus derives from the number six which in the language of many of the
communities that participate in this festival translates into Cha or Che. The festival is
dedicated to the Sun God ‘Surya’ and
Dawn Goddess ‘Usas’ and lasts for a
period of four days. Although it is thought of as a Hindu festival however other
religious communities including Muslims do partake in the festival to pay their
gratitude and obeisance to the source of life and blessings bestowed on earth by it.
The festival is
initiated with a ritual bath on the first day in the banks at sunset and
culminates with ritual bath followed up on the final day at the time of sunrise. It is a festival where the women folks take
center stage. The women during the four days starting with the dip on the first
day of sunset take on a strenuous vow of abstinence and fasting (vrat). Even the tasting of one’s own
saliva is considered against their vow. Traditional food items like Khujuria,
Thekua and Kichri are prepared following a certain cultural log. For example,
the use of sugar is completely prohibited during the time of the festival and
instead jaggery is commonly used as a substitute.
The origin of
this practice of celebrating light can be traced back to ancient Indian
cultural traditions. Yet it has undergone tremendous metamorphosis. Folk songs,
Bollywood Medleys played in modern sound systems are typical examples. It is
difficult to reduce cultural practices such as Chatth Puja as “survivals” or
relics from the past which many schools of anthropological thought propagate.
The Chatth Puja that I was covering was at the banks of the Dhansiri in Dimapur
Nagaland and not the traditional northern and terai belts of India and Nepal. And
even here there are many communites that gather at different points of the bank
along the Dhansiri which intersects the territorial boundaries of two Indian
states namely Assam and Nagaland.
But the above
festival is not really about tradition and culture and all those trappings we
often get caught in. Chhath is essentially a celebration of light and the life
which manifests nature.
Light, Poetry and Photography!
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