Festivals Of Maharashtra

In this book we bring to our readers the details of all our diverse Hindu festivals, focusing on festivals of the State of Maharashtra; the festivals that are celebrated by the Marathi speaking world. It is our effort to document the traditions the culture and to draw the scientific, social, Vedic significance of a particular ritual, the prescribed food, etc. Festivals are associated to our Gods, with stories from the puranas, to the changing climate. These aspects of festivals give an insight into the deeper significance, the positive effect on our mind, body and spirit, underlying the celebrations. We have taken into account only the major festivals that have been marked as Sana /Ustav, from the many Sana, Utsav and Vrat in our panchang. These Sana /Ustava are: Gudhi Padwa, Raksha Bandhan & Narali Purnima, Gokulashtami, Ganesh Utsav, Navratra & Dassera, Diwali, Makar Sankrant, Holi and few of the important Purnimas. We have tried to present the richness of our traditions with the help of well researched text and images. Many of the images have been photographed by staging elaborate pujas, and feature people celebrating the festival. Festivals are the great means of reaching out to all sections of society and uniting the body, mind and intellect within each individual for the physical, material and spiritual uplift of humankind. We believe that it is our responsibility to pass this part of our rich culture, our heritage to our future generation and to preserve the sanctity of celebrating these festivals.