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Chaitti
According to the vikrami calendar the new year begins in the month of
Chaitra. The first day of this month (Chaitra Sankranti) is considered
very important and is celebrated all over the state. Two colourful festivals
are celebrated during this month . One is Navratri and the other is Ralli
Puja. In some corner of the house which faces east a plant is covered
with soil and sown with barley seeds, coconut, symbolising the goddess
Bhagwati is also placed near it. For nine days the ritual 'puja' is performed
there and on the tenth day (Dashami) the barley shoots are distributed
all over the village. These shoots are known as Riholi and they are said
to symbolise the goddess Durga Bhagwati. In Ralli
Puja, the young unmarried girls in the village make little statues of
the lord Shiva and his wife Parvati and place these on a plank and offer
prayers to it throughout the month of Chaitra. The entire ritual is strange
and beautiful. All the young unmarried girls gather early in the morning
in the house where Ralli is going to be worshipped and afterwards they
go to the local lake singing songs. There they bathe and fill small metal
pots with water and come home and bathe the deities with this and offer
them flowers. At the end of the month a ritual wedding between Ralli and
Lord Shiva is enacted. On the Baisakhi day Ralli is brought out ceremoniously
in a palanquin and taken to a river bank. There she is immersed in the
water and as it is being done the girls cry and weep. On the day of the
wedding, people are invited for Bhat (ritual feast) and the girls pray
to the goddess to bless them with a husband as good as her own. |
