Festivals and traditions

Many old people regret the changes in celebration of festivals in our country and nostalgically looked at the traditional way of celebration of bygone days.

A child today questions his mother/ teacher why Shiva had a baby elephant's head cut off so cruelly to replace his own son's head he had cut off in a fit of fury. Scholars write books wondering if Ravana was the better person and if Rama was not a person with very low thinking to send his virtuous wife off to the forest without ever trying to support her in the face of wild accusations.

In the West, popular magazines print cover stories asking, ?Is God dead.? The very fact that traditional festivals are still being celebrated itself is becoming cause for celebration. Yet Vinayaka Chathurthi which was celebrated in the South, particularly, as a purely household puja between noon and sunset on the day, is now being celebrated in every street corner for days on end. The blaring music and other unseemly entertainment dished out by the more affluent ?pandals? in connection with Ganesh Chathurthi and Dasara almost drive the people of the locality to curse the gods for the inconvenience they suffer for anything up to ten days each time.


The saying 'Old order changeth yielding place to new?.' is very much in operation and many new 'traditions' are being formed. And those who still remember the older traditions will have to face the facts of life present today and learn to accept them.