In South, someone will blow the conch shell before they take the deceased to the procession.But in a Bengali wedding, I have seen someone blowing the conch shell and ladies ululating.Also I have seen in some temples in the North that when they show Aarti to the God, they play really really loud music.When I heard it for the first time, it frightened me a bit.
Indeed intersting thread to know about north and south culture too :thumbsup Being south indian we consider Friday as Goddess Laxmi day whereas in North Thursday are considered as Naryan and Laxmi day and they wear yellow dress who performs any fasting or pooja that day :cheers Another intersting one came to know recently here :coffee A boy baby has circles in head (intersection of front and back in head). In South if one circle is there then considered as he will have one wife in future and so on ..:bonk whereas North Indians considered as siblings after him . Ex : If one circle then he will have sibling either boy or girl after him. Even they can make out the next one will be boy or a girl. :spin
Dear Sister, Glad to know about the different belief that exist in India. I have lived in many places in India, Basically from south, the belief here it is an illomen if the coconut broken in the temple has turned bad (அழுகியது) But in Maharashtra once while performing pooja at Lord shani temple on saturday when the coconut broken was not good (அழுகியது) but pandit comforted us saying it is a good omen and he was right we got our papers processed for a project which was delayed for a long time.:thumbsup I too guess like sister shanthi, this thread could be moved to "General Discussions" for pouting responses, Hope moderators look into it.
Dear Soumya234 It is considered auspicious to blow the conch in whole of Bengal. Conches are blown in temples and during puja ceremonies. No Bengali puja ceremony is complete without a conch being blown. Similarly it is blown many a time during auspicious occassion like marriage or sacred thread ceremony or even the bhai-fota. Conch served the purpose of trumpet during olden times. For example, every warrior had a conch. In the Mahabharata, Krishna blew the famous conch Panchjanya. Bhisma too blew on the conch to declare the start of the day's war or declare that war had concluded for the day. Devi Durga too has a conch in one of her hands. Lord SatyaNarayan too has a conch in one of his hands. Even Lord Ganesha too has a conch in one of his four hands.
Hi Soumya It is apparent that conch has different connotations in different cultures. I recently paid a visit to Puri in Odisha. There I saw that while taking a dead body to the crematorium, they blow the conch and clash cymbals. This is something new to a person from the North. Playing arti tunes over the microphone is quite common in the North. For example every evening during Arati of the Ganga in Haridwar, Jai Jagdish Hare is broadcast over the microphone. It creates a great ambience as the Ganga flows by quietly.
Good thread,Swathi! You are talking about North-South differences.Let me tell you.this kumkum thing has various versions in my family itself(within).When kumkum spills my MIL says it is inauspicious whereas my aunt says someone in the family will get married. Same goes for someones death in the family tone person would say some good thing (like marriage) should happen immediately whereas the othe person would say we should not fix any good functions in the same year. I think it is what we believe and poor documentation from our ancestors(pls do not mistake me.But deep inside me I feel we should have had good documentation to help people but we chose otherwise). In south,generally people go to inauspicious fns wearing black but in north I see they wear white. Have you noticed that all south Indian gods are portrayed black in color while in north they are portrayed in white?
Satchi very nice thread.Amazing to know we have different beliefs. Bengal and TN have a few similar cultures.If astrology predicts a man will lose his first wife ,as Bandanasen said they ask him to tie mangalsutra to the young banana tree to get relieved from that.In North the DIL entering her in-laws house push the grains to the floor but in south it's totally different.Regarding saturdays we think whatever we start will flourish.(sani perugum).
Dear Periamma Your reply reminds me of Ash and AB junior's marriage. It was widely rumoured that because of dosha in Ash's stars, she was married to a Banyan tree first. There is a custom in UP & Bihar of married women worshipping the Banyan tree and praying for long life for their husbands. They even make parikrama of the Banyan tree and tie a red thread around its trunk.
Can anyone tell me about the wedding rituals? I know it is a bit off the main topic. But I have always wondered about the pheras during the wedding. Why is it that for some of the pheras the husband leads and after that the woman steps in front?
Dear Saisakthi Madam I wanted to add on coconut bit since I am TTC, my MIL (north) always tell me to look out for a small flower (or is it bud) inside coconut nad eat it of i discover one such coconut, while my patti/ amma, are staunchly against eating this bud from inside coconut... wonder who's right satchi, coming to pheras, some communities have 5 while some have 7 pheras.....i wonder why