Happy Navratri 2012

Navratri 2012 Dates
When:
Chaitra Navratri 2012: 23rd March - 1st April;
Sharad Navratri 2012: 16th October - 23rd October
Where: Gujarat, West Bengal and other parts of India

‘Navratri’ meaning ‘nine nights’ is a significant Hindu festival, which is celebrated twice a year - ‘Chaitra’ or ‘Vasant Navratri’ (March-April), and ‘Sharad Navratri’ (October-November). Both the celebrations center on the worship of Goddess Shakti.
In Gujarat, Navratri festival celebrates the worship of Goddess Jagdamba, while in West Bengal, Durga Puja is the reason to rejoice. Though, every region in India celebrates this festival in its own way, Navratri Festival is dedicated to the 3 avatars of Goddess Shakti - Durga (the warrior Goddess), Lakshmi (the Goddess of wealth), and Saraswati (the Goddess of knowledge).

History of Navratri
- Legend says that when Mahishasura, the demon, acquired unbeatable powers and started taking away innocent lives, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Mahesh of the Hindu Trinity united their supreme powers and created Goddess Durga who entered a war with Mahishasura. This war extended for nine days and on the tenth day she beheaded him. These nine nights signify the festival of Navratri.
- As per Hindu mythology, Uma, daughter of King Daksha of Himalayas, who married Lord Shiva, once visited her parents to take part in a yagna. The story goes that when her father offended Lord Shiva, unable to bear the insults she jumped into the agnikund, which is why she is also known as Sati. In her rebirth, she married Lord Shiva and also made peace with her parents. It is said that Sati comes to stay with them for nine days, this is celebrated as Navratri.
- It is also said that Lord Rama worshipped Goddess Durga in all her nine forms, for nine days, in order to gather all the powers required to vanquish Ravana the demon, and release his wife Sita from his clutches. Those nine days imply Navratri, and the tenth day when he killed Ravana, came to be known as Vijaydashmi and is celebrated as Dussehra.

Fasting and Rituals of Navratri Festival
The religious Navratri festival revolves around the three aspects of Goddess Shakti which are worshipped, with first three days devoted to Goddess Durga, followed by fourth, fifth and sixth days devoted to Goddess Lakshmi and last three days for Goddess Saraswati. The devotees observe fasting for seven to eight days, and break their fast on the eighth day (Ashtami) or ninth day (Navami) of the festival, by carrying out ‘Kanya Pujan’ or ‘Kanchika Pujan’. This involves worshipping and seeking blessings of nine young girls, representing the nine forms of Goddess Durga.
During fasting, only fruits, milk, potato and other root vegetables should be eaten. Sendha namak (rock salt) is a significant ingredient used instead of common salt.
Chanting of mantras, prayers and religious hymns (bhajans) related to the Goddess, form other religious practices of Navratri.

Navratri Festival Celebrations
Celebrations of Navratri, all across India, are characterized by the worship of Goddess Shakti. Navratri festival is considered to be the biggest festival of the year in Gujarat and West Bengal. It also involves fun-filled dance performances. Dandiya in Maharashtra and Garba in Gujarat add to the festive celebrations. In West Bengal, devotees of Maa Durga, celebrate Durga Puja which signifies triumph of good over evil. The idols of the Goddess are worshipped and on the tenth day they are immersed in water to bid her adieu. In Gujarat, jaagrans are observed and women perform the popular dance - Garba Raas.

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Holi Festival Pictures 2014

The festival of colors, Holi--also called Phagwa (Bhojpur), Holla Moholla (Punjab), and Boshonto Utsav (West Bengal)--is perhaps the most popular festival of India. It is celebrated mainly by the Hindus (though not restricted to them), in the spring season.

Holi is celebrated in certain other countries also such as Nepal, UK, Guyana and Trinidad even though not on the same scale and magnitude as in India. In India, the festival of colors is celebrated with much joy and gay abandon throughout the length and breadth of the country--especially in Bihar, UP, West Bengal, Punjab and Delhi.

Majority of the people celebrate the festival of colors by dousing each other with buckets of colored water and by throwing color-filled balloons at each other. But some people--especially in Kolkata and the adjoining areas-maybe, due to socio-cultural reasons, celebrate the festival of Holi in a somewhat passive and easy manner.

At the time of Holi, special Holi songs are sung, lip-smacking dishes and sweets such as Gujhia (Fried pastry filled with an aromatic nuts mixture) prepared and gifts exchanged. A special drink, called Thandai-- sometimes containing bhang--is prepared and enjoyed by the common revelers that make the festival truly riotous, though highly enjoyable.

Holi Legends

Legend has it that Prahlad--the son of Hirankashyap--was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. This much irked his father who asked his sister Holika, also called Holaka and Putana, to kill his son. As Holika was blessed with a boon that allowed her to enter fire and escape unhurt, she entered a blazing fire along with Prahlad. But, while she was killed, Prahlad survived as Lord Vishnu himself came to his rescue.

Since then, to celebrate Prahlad's victory and the victory of good over evil, a day before the main festival of Holi, people lit bonfires called Holika at public places. On the occasion of Holika, in the Northern India, special gram flour and curd dish (Dahi Besan Curry) is prepared which is first offered to the fire god and then relished with family and friends.

Another legend suggests that Lord Krishna loved playing and having fun with his consorts and dousing them with colored water. Over the years, this practice caught people's fancy and they started celebrating it as Holi.

The festival celebrates brotherhood and spirit of life, and inspires people to shed their shackles of religious and caste bigotries to enjoy the purity of life like never before. Holi also expounds the virtues of being truthful and leading a virtuous and righteous life. No wonder, Holi is the most popular and widely celebrated festival of India.

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We at The www.exploreyourpunjab.com wish everyone a Shubh/Happy Holi !
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Punjab Assembly elections results live: SAD-BJP headed for a repeat

Chandigarh: Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine Tuesday appeared set to retain power in the state as it won 30 seats and was leading in another 34 seats in the 117-member Assembly.

Congress, which was hoping to wrest power after five years, has managed to win 20 seats so far and was leading in another 30 seats.

Out of the total 50 results declared so far, SAD has won 23 and its ally BJP seven, while Congress has bagged 20 seats.

The SAD-BJP combine surged ahead of the Congress in early trends emerging after the first round of counting on Tuesday for the state's 117 assembly seats.

As per the trends available at 2.00 pm for the remaining 67 seats so far, SAD-BJP combine is ahead in 34 seats, with SAD leading in 29 and BJP in five seats, while the Congress is leading in 30 seats and others in three seats.

It has so far turned out to be a close contest between the ruling alliance and the Congress party.

Manpreet Badal's Punjab People's Party-led Sanjha Morcha failed to make any impact in the polls as it was not in a winning position from any seat.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's estranged cousin Manpreet Badal lost from both Gidderbaha and Maur seats, finishing third in both the seats.

Congress has won the seats of Talwandi Sabo, Amritsar Central, Rajpura, Nabha and Patiala, while the SAD has won Balchaur, Attari, Faridkot and Ghanuar and the BJP Amritsar East.

Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh retained the Patiala seat defeating Surjit Singh Kohli of the SAD by 42318 votes.

The Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal have won from Lambi and Jalalbad respectively.

Congress nominee Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu has retained the Talwandi Sabo seat defeating Amarjit Singh Sidhu (SAD) by a margin of 8524 votes.

The other Congress winners were Om Parksh Soni (Amritsar Central), Hardyal Singh Kamboj (Rajpura) and Sadhu Singh (Nabha).

SAD's Nand Lal has retained the Balchaur seat defeating Shiv Ram Singh (BSP) by a margin of 14857 votes.

Gulzar Singh Ranike of the SAD has again won the Attari seat defeating his nearest rival Tarsem Singh by a margin of 4983 votes.

Deep Malhotra of SAD has annexed the Faridkot seat beating the sitting member Avtar Singh Brar of the Congress by 2727 votes.

SAD's Harpreet Kaur has defeated Madan Lal Jalalpur of the Congress by 1778 votes to win from Ghanaur.

BJP MP Navjot Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur has been elected from Amritsar East constituency defeating her nearest rival Simarpreet Kaur (Independent) by 7099 votes.

From Maur assembly segment in Faridkot, Punjab Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon of SAD has defeated Mangat Rai Bansal of Congress by 1387 votes.

From Jaitu (SC) seat, Joginder Singh of Congress has defeated Gurinder Singh of SAD by 6342 votes.

From Dakha, Manpreet Singh of SAD has defeated Jasbir Singh Khangura of Congress by 16,338 votes.

Harmeet Singh Sandhu has retained his Tarn Taran seat defeating Congress' Dharamvir Agnihotri by a margin of 4621 votes.

Amarinder's son Raninder has been trailing by over 6,000 votes in Samana constituency.

Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma has been leading by over 11000 votes over his nearest rival Raman Bhalla of the Congress from the Pathankot assembly constituency.

The other key leaders elected were include Hockey Olympian Pargat Singh (SAD- Jalandhar Cantt), Finance Minister Upinderjit Kaur (SAD- Sultanpur Lodhi) and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Congress-Lehra).

The mammoth counting exercise began at 8 am amid tight surveillance of the poll officials. Today’s counting of votes will decide the fate of 1,078 candidates, including the two Chief Ministerial aspirants Parkash Singh Badal of ruling SAD-BJP and Amarinder Singh of opposition Congress, in fray for 117 Assembly seats in Punjab.

The ruling SAD-BJP alliance, the Congress and BSP have contested all the 117 assembly seats. While the newly floated Punjab People's Party contested on 92 seats, SAD (Amritsar) headed by former IPS officer Simranjit Singh Mann sought votes at 57 assembly constituencies.

The SAD fielded its candidates on 94 seats which included 10 women while the BJP contesting the remaining 23 seats, which included three women.

The Congress fielded 11 women while the BSP fielded six.

The election to the 117-member assembly mostly witnessed a triangular contest between the ruling SAD-BJP alliance, the main opposition Congress and the Sanjha Morcha which includes the Left and People's Party of Punjab (PPP) led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's estranged nephew Manpreet.

Prominent among those who contested elections include Parkash Singh Badal (Lambi), his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister (Jalalabad), Captain Amarinder Singh (Patiala City) and his son Raninder (Samana) besides another former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra).

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