'Thiruvathira' festival slowly losing past glory

[and/or www.mantra.com/jai]

'Thiruvathira' festival slowly losing past glory

By a Staff Reporter
The Hindu
Sunday, January 8, 2012

The Hindu Students of the Durga Higher Secondary School, Kanhangad,
posing for a snap after performing Thiruvathirakali at the recently
concluded Kasaragod District Revenue School Kalotsavam held at
Cherkala. The team bagged first prize with A grade in the
competition. Photo: V. Kumar.

Kanhangad - Has 'Thiruvathirakali' to mark the centuries old
Thiruvathira festivities, that once enjoyed prominence among section
of the Hindu community of Central Kerala along with major festivals
like Onam and Vishu eventually reduced to be mere stage shows in
school and college level competitions?

This apprehension was raised by Radha R. Nair, a house wife who is
leading a quiet life along with her husband Mr. Radhakrishnan at
Anandashram here on the auspicious occasion on Sunday observing day
long fast reminiscing the rich past in her ancestral home in
Kozhikode.

The festivities appeared to have lost its glory with the emergence of
nuclear family members who prefer to confine in home and glue before
television rather than taking time from their routine or hectic
schedule to mix up with relatives and friends to be part of the
festivities enjoying prominence till recent years at par with Onam
and Vishu celebrations.

The festivities have more or less confined to stages where school and
college girls compete among one another reflecting the past glory of
the dance form during art festivals, she says.

The Thiruvathira festival, celebrated on the Thiruvathira day of
Malayalam month Dhanu, mostly on full Moon day, the birth star of
Lord Shiv, was celebrated by a section of married women for the
prosperity and healthy life of their husband while youngsters take
part in the festivities to marry a man of their choice.

The 'Thiruvathira' festival is celebrated to commemorate plea of
Goddess Parvati who used to regularly observe fast on Thiruvathira
day in the name of Lord Shiva pleaded Him to heed to the plea of a
newly married Brahmin girl, whose husband died days after their
marriage, to bless her by giving rebirth to the deceased.

Parvati's fervent plea yielded results bringing the dead man alive
and women folk in all age groups observe day-long fast on the
'Thiruvathira' day of the Dhanu Malayalam month followed by
'Thiruvathirakali, Kaikottikali' after taking bathe in group in ponds
by splashing waters on one another before Sun rise and have a bunch
of 108 beetle leaves each as part of the celebrations.

"Today most of the ponds in olden days have either dried up or
vanished with rise in population, replaced by commercial complexes
and high rise buildings", Ms. Nair, an expert in Tanjavur paintings,
reminisces.

Keywords - Kerala, Thiruvathirakali, Festival

More at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2785751.ece

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

-----

About the terrorist Goon Squad:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
As everyone knows, a goon is a bully or thug who terrorizes or tries
to do away with opposition.

"Myself, Mallu. Yourself?" (V. Bhattathiri) <KalluM...@gmail.com>
tries his best to be a bully -- telling others what and when to post,
where to post and where not to post, deliberately publishing lies
about others, stalking and abusing them with hate speech -- but fails
miserably. He is really stressed out, and like his lap dog Prem
Thomas (who currently posts as "P. Rajah" <us...@this.com>, and issues
*death threats* to people), is priming himself for conditions such as
stroke and heart disease. Others in the Goon Squad include
Dayashankar M. Joshi "DMJoshi" <jos...@gmail.com> who displays
unquestioning obedience to Goon Squad thugs, and the instigator who
posts as "Bholu" <bh...@hotmail.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------------

o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.

Since newsgroup posts are being removed
by forgery by one or more net terrorists,
this post may be reposted several times.