Traditions....what?

@Srama You are welcome ma

 

Traditions!
It is heartening to note that some old traditions are still alive in these far lands, thanks to the few enriched souls among us.
All our festivals begin and end with some traditions. Diwali starts with buying metals on Dhanteras, exchanging gifts on Diwali and sister meeting brother on Bhai Duj.
In America and other countries generation next will not carry forward these traditions.
Back in India, they are also forgetting some of these traditions and following new ones like X-Mas and Halloween.

 

Dear SRama,

Your write up was as sweet as the rava kesari I made for this Deepavali. I remember my grand mother, MIL, making tons of sweets and savories, even a month before, tirelessly making hand made murukkus, Laddu, Athirasam, delicacies which required unlimited energy, passion and time.
Half their age, I think twice about making any sweet even for our personal consumption, leave alone gifting our neighbors. Store brought sweets are just thrown out in to the garbage bin, even if we pack it with all our love.
The present NGOs are doing a good job of collecting home made sweets from various schools and distributing among the homeless people, sanitation workers and other down trodden people. This is the best way of celebrating the Festival of Lights, bringing some light in to the lives of people which is otherwise dark. Happy Deepavali to you and your family.

Cheers,
Agatha83

 

Dear Srama
After following all the traditions on Deepavali day-a ritual oil bath in the early morning, taking breakfast with sweet savouries and bajji, and wearing new dresses ,I leisurely read your snippet couched in tradition and the wonderful responses there of.The snippet, as usual was very sweet.

Traditions revolve around culture. All the religions, ethnic groups and communities throughout the world have so much of traditional practices that are followed during weddings, festivals and during death ceremonies also.
If you attend marriages of various communities in India, you will find varieties of traditions, some have reasoning and some are being followed as instructed by elders since many don't want to anatgonise seniors at home.

Buying a piece of gold coin, or a small vessel is nothing and it may stand in our memory.
But when sales guys take advantage of these beliefs ,and people also fall for them, as though heaven is going to fall if you don't buy something in gold On Akshaya Tritiya or Danteras, there comes the trouble.

Even tying of managal Sutra or Thali had not been a vedic tradition and there are no mantras for sacred knot.There are mantras only for Kannika Danam and Paani Grahanam.( Maangaklyam Thanthunaameva mama jeevana Hethuna',Kante badnaami subhaghe'etc etc are later additions. )It is said that mangalaya sootram was a later addition to Hindu tradition after 1600 , after foreign invasions when the safety of ladies became a question mark.Even in Sangam works in Tamil, there is no reference to mangala sutra.

That is why they say that Lalitha sahasra namam in which there is a reference to " Kaamesha Baddha mangalya Sutra shobitha Kandhara"( Parvathi with shoulders adorned by mangalya sutra tied by Shiva) ' is a later composition.,compsed after the practice started.

During marriages very often there will be in fights regarding following traditions between the bride and groom's family and it would go to a serious extent of even stopping the weddings.

We love traditions as long as they are meaningful and bring cheer and radiate happiness. If the same traditions are harmful, I think we have to put an end to it.
Good thing that they have stopped traditions of tonsuring widows and keeping them at the rear end of the house., and compelling them to wear only white dress.
Certain traditions like fire walking in temples with kids with them, compelling one to pierce tongue ,cheeks in the name of one, breaking coconuts on the skull of devotees , very strict ritual practices during shraddha rituals, making young girls starve under the pretext of traditions on particular days not withstanding health conditions etc- do come under traditions but marginalize on blind beliefs.Giving donkey's milk or a spoon of donkey's blood to new born infants is still a tradition in some families.

The tradition of Sadhus assembling in river ghats as digambaras( nude) during certain occasions as Sangamam is stated to be a tradition and is being followed this day.When this question was raised a few years back, sadhus had replied that it needs great courage and divine power to face lakhs of people as digambaras.Some call it divine tradition and some as uncivilized.

Certain traditions are funny to see. In some of the communities in Tamil Iyer weddings ,there is a tradition that the bride is accepted as the daughter-in-law first. Mother-in-law makes the vadhu wear her saree, even if it is old,in the traditional madisar style and ties a golden string, now a days, a necklace , around her neck and hands over her to her son. All the saptha padhi etc take place while the vadhu is wearing her MIL's saree.
The same old saree is given to all her DILs ,.By the time the last son gets married, the saree will become very old.
I too was wearing an old saree of my husband's grandma on my wedding day. Now a days, at least they buy a new saree, MIl weras it for a few mts and makes DIL wear the same.How is this?

In olden days, some 100 years back there was a tradition of sending bhakshanams along with the bride .All the eatables would be kept in the same brass pot. in a particular order. At the bottom of the vessel there will be a small bronze pot covered with yellow turmeric tinged cloth in which Thirattu paal ( Milk koa with jagory? Next layer will be athirasams, a soft jagory sweet. Next above will be thenkuzhal, a crisp item. Next abovewill be hand murukku and on the top will be the rough and tough hardest Pori vilanga urundai, made of some grains, wheat flour with very thick jagory syrup. It would be very hard to bite even with juvenile teeth.
This tradition was being followed in all the weddings. The significance and the lesson to the bride would be'married life is a hard path, as hard as porivilangaai urundai,very difficult to follow.( It is also known as Porul VILANGAA urundai, which means , a round object,the meaning of which is not understandable)
If you cross the hurdle, it would be a less difficult murukku like path, not so difficult.Then you have crisp thenkuzhal, some what easy to eat. As you get accustomed to all the customs and practices in the new home, after a few years it would be soft and sweet like Athirasam and culminate in the sweetest and softest thirattupal.But how long will it take?-a life time ,perhaps!

Some of the traditions are scientific and logical. Some others are too rustic and are being followed just to satisfy elders. I hope these will vanish during the next 15 to 20 years.
I am for following traditions which are meaningful and which have some philosophical significance and some intrinsic value which we want our children to imbibe and follow.
jayasala42

 

Hi Sabitha,

Let me start by saying how happy I am to see a snippet from you now . I’m posting a reply after my third reading.

I beamed with joy knowing you like SRK too, I still watch his good old movies till date. Cheers to that . You have a way of having the reader hooked to you Sabitha which is why I always look forward to seeing your posts. It felt like you were taking a peek at my life in certain ways and reminding me of some simple pleasures in life.

I never give empty bowls too something I learnt from my mom as well. I never thought of it a tradition though, it was always like the most natural thing to me. You had me at this line - traditions are meant to bring people together . So true, a twist to it which I usually say and believe is that - Food and music brings people together .

I simply love the way you put your thoughts to words and spin a snippet like this. It’s refreshing, simple and beautiful with an underlying message always . Thanks for coming up with this.