Festival in Spanish Fork, Nov 10

The Indian New Year is traditionally heralded with the Festival of Lights (Dipa=lights & Wali=festival; idiomatic version, Deewali). Households put lamps in every window and temples brightly illuminate altars to bring in the best for the upcoming year. Also the date of the festival coincides with the return of the avatar of God, Sri Rama, to His ancestral kingdom after an exile of 14 years and many adventures. All the citizens welcomed Rama’s return home by brightening up the entire city of Ayodhya and setting off fireworks.

The New Year occurs during the lull between fall harvests and the onset of the monsoons. Thus it is a time of thanksgiving, and that corollary festival is called Anna Kuta (literally meaning, "Heaps of Food"). Lord Krishna inaugurated this festival by inspiring the inhabitants of His village (Vrndavan) to worship the cows on this one day per year and to prepare a huge celebratory feast consisting of no less than 108 preparations. Observing the above traditions, the schedule of events for this dual celebration is as follows:

6:00pm Fire Sacrifice: grains, seeds, etc from the creation of the Lord are offered back to Him through the medium of fire—very colorful

6:30 pm Govardhan Puja: Krishna once lifted a mountain named Govardhan and used it as an umbrella to protect His devotees from a devastating rainfall sent by Indra the king of heaven. This pastime is commemorated by circumambulating a large hill made from a sweet called hallava, and decorated with other sweets, savories, plastic cows, jelly bean rocks, broccoli-spear trees, green-coconut grass, etc.

7:00 pm Classical Indian dance performance (Bharata Natyam) by Ramya Harishankar, head of the Premier Arpana School of Dance of Los Angeles, California.

8:00 pm Anna Kuta: Lights in the temple room are turned down and the altar area is opened dramatically to the sounds of conch shells being blown and gongs sounding, to reveal a food extravaganza of 108 preparations offered to the Deities. The whole show is illuminated by flashing colored lights and dozens of votive candles.

Arotik ceremony continuing the mood of offering back to the Lord what is rightfully His, this "Ceremony of Bells" offers to His Form on the altar incense,camphor, ghee lamps, pure water, flower, fragrance, and peacock-feather fan, as well as whisk made from the tail of a yak.

8:10 pm Go-Puja, Worship of a live cow with flower garlands and sweets. Indian culture is that instead of killing the cows for 700 lbs of their meat, they are respected for producing an average of 90,000 lbs of nutritional wholesome milk in a lifetime. And because we all drink the milk of a cow in our infancy, the cow is regarded as a sort of mother.

8:15 pm Huge vegetarian feast enjoyed by all participants. Samosa, pakora, rasgula, saag paneer, puri, sandesh, hallava, papadam, kher, matar paneer, alou gobi sabji, kofta, malpura, gulabjamun, and on and on...

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His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Note: All photographic images of and quotes by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada on this web site are copyright by B.B.T. International and Used With Permission.

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