Religious Festivals and their significance ..

As you said these festivals come down to us from our ancestors and also an intermingling of cultures and civilizations over a period of time. These celebrations also kept social circles going in times when homes were along way apart and people will hungry to share the news of the times.

hi kiran madam, you are right festivals of our religions are show our life style and our hospitality ,food sharing with others and meeting friends ,relatives in the family,but i find this festivals are more popular in the poor and rich people ,the common man may not show interest in them because of funds,poor man secure money for the festivals he does not care for another day,rich people does not have that problem,but the problem is with common man only,have a nice day

As a Hindu person I may say the opinions of scholars, "Life of a Hindu is a festival!" In the 12 months of the year we have 24 popular festivals being celebrated in every locality with much pump and ceremony! All these add colour to the way of living of people as a rich traditional asset! Thanks for this nice topic and enjoy your festivals!!

I have hated Christmas for over 70 years when at age 6, my Dad told me there was no Santa Claus. No other day on the calendar rankles me more than Christmas. I hate the stupid presents, and the even more meaningless cards. Christmas decorations that are strung and hung all over inside and out. And Christmas music- that sickening jangle of nonsensical sound destined to play continuously on TV and in every store in all the Malls, one month before and 2 weeks after. Merry-making with a bottle of booze in remembrance of our ancestors who were uneducated, simple minded, drunken idiots, believing in anything and everything that promised a break from their dumb mundane lives. Oh God,Please deliver me from Your Believers, and their Christmas Celebrations!

Talking about religious festivals and celebrations, what can you say about Catholic Christian's celebration of Easter that coincide with Ishtar's festival, which is a Pagan's celebration for their goddess of fertility? The words are almost synonyms and are being celebrated the same and exact date?

Religious Festivals in our country, Philippines, always help bring families and friends together. It has never ceased to unite people once or twice a year. It has been that way here since decades ago, but it has slowly come to be dull. In the past, there would be dances and the communities or barangays would organize for activites while people would be eager to join. But now, people seldom donate for the sake of these festivals and hardly join the acitivites which make it much more harder to organize. The only thing most people look forward to the "disco" which would always be held on the last night and these discos can cause alot of trouble because people drink and dance but still, it happens to become the priority nowadays. I blame this on modernization.

Hi Kiran, I’ve always looked at religious celebrations as a way and means to bring in some colour and variation to our otherwise mundane existence. While we Hindus, being polytheists thru tradition, have our 13 festivals in 12 months (a Bengali saying BTW LOL), even monotheist religions have their own special days to commemorate significant events in their religion. The event may be sad or happy but the associated festivities or even that special day, gives people an opportunity to take a break from their hectic schedule, catch up with friends and families and just have a good time together (so to speak of).

Hey, Yes every festival has its own significance and thats what makes life so very interesting. We wait for it year after year and many believes that tis festival is going to bring some good change in their life and so on. I live in Mumbai and the Ganpati celebration here is something which is worth seeing. People treat lord Ganesha as their own child and we dance, sing, and make merry! Also we have a very famous church in a place called Bandra in Mumbai which is very famous named Mount Mary. During Christmas or on Good Friday no matter what religion we are we all go to the church and pray to Lord Jesus. Also there are very famous mosques here. I have a lot of Muslim friends and i go to Mosques or Dargha to pray. Unfortunate thing is that we humans create a lot of nonsense in the name of religion and also the celebrations associated with it. If we look in a broader mind God is indeed one and we can all join each other in the celebrations! Cheers, Tutul

Hi Kiran, Here in my country, we have celebrations for everything. Being a catholic country (well, catholic-dominated) we have a lot of religious celebrations. All churches have a saint that they represent and every feast day of the saint, we have what we call a "fiesta" or celebration in english. There will be games and lots of food. The games usually are just traditional parlor games where people throw eggs and the partner has to catch it; Hit the pot (kinda like a pinata, only we use clay pots) for kids. Race to finish a hanging apple with you partner (no other body parts can be used except your head); and a lot more People from other places visit their friends when there is a fiesta. People also invite their friends to their homes when they have a fiesta. Some fiestas here are even tourist attractions. Some fiesta's have "modernized" and have beauty contests,battle of the bands and dance contests. Last week was St. John the Baptist's feast day. There's a city here called San Juan which means st. John. They celebrated St. John the Baptist's feast day by getting wet. They threw water at people. Some hose people down. A few firetrucks are roving just to spray people with water. They even throw water at the town mayor! People who go to work or school that day somehow resent the festival because they get wet, but I think it's fun.