Since I’ve been here I’ve heard multiple variations of what this festival represents, so instead of trying to sift through all of them and give a condensed version I’ll just point you to “MailerIndia.com” which seems to have a very good explanation. In short, I am told the overall significance of the lighting ceremony is to remind us to strive towards enlightenment to lift us beyond the darkness of ego…
For the festival we met fairly early at Amma & Appa’s house. Amma painted and Geetha assisted in painting Kolams on the walkways outside the home. Kolam are geometric designs painted on the ground with rice flour and water. The designs are mostly memorized and painted freehand on the with the index and middle fingers. Although largly decorative, kolam also in some situations also serve as spiritual protection.
Geetha, Amma and Usha prepared all of the little lamps which included measuring out oil, cutting and preparing wicks, and a series of prayers. After lighting the lamps they are placed outside the home decorating porches, entryways and the general entrances of the home (think Christmas lights, but with real fire…)
And of course the festival is marked with special sweets called Pori Urandai, which are basically puffed rice balls held together with a sugary syrup and flavor with peanuts, cardomom, and coconut.
The album for our day can be found here
Thanks to everyone who have been checking in on us!
Seemandham is a religious ceremony meant to bless the pregnant mother and the unborn child. As most Hindu ceremonies it serves to ward off evil spirits, as well as to provide for a save delivery.
An interesting part of the ceremony is that all childless, married women (read Geetha) have the opportunity to borrow some of the prenant woman’s “mojo” so to speak to lend assistance/good fortune in becoming pregnant “next.” Think of a twist on “catching the bouquet” at a wedding. As it seems the concept of planning a family is still a bit foriegn to Geetha’s family, we’ll have to see who tops who in the Indian Deity versus modern pharmacology match up… :-) (Geetha reserves the right to edit this post as she thinks I’m being a bit too revealing, but does admit it’s funny…)
On a side note, we took our first couple of auto’s for this trip, and have found that the prices seem to have gone up since our last visit. Geetha is worried that people like me, staying at places like I stay, are creating a false economy that is going to make transportation unaffordable to certian demographics in the populace… I still argue that when an auto driver picks me up in front of the hotel, he know’s he has a mark and charges accordingly… Time will tell.
We’re finalizing our trip to Ooty next week, and may not be posting again until after we return…
Pictures of the Seemandham can be found here.
We spent some time shopping on Tuesday, but spent the majority of the day letting our body clocks finally adjust to the 10.5 hour change in time.
It is interesting to note that although Geetha loves to shop, neither of us is overly fond of malls, yet for some reason we are drawn to “Spencer’s Plaza” whenever we’re in Chennai. Spencers poses as a western style mall, cum asian style bazaar. Think a mall where the shop workers stand out side the doors of their shops like carnies on a fair midway, trying to hard sell you into their shops…
sarcasm -> Since we were there last it was nice to see that Pizza Hut has joined Subway in the food court! :-)
Later we caught a call taxi out to Geetha’s parents for another wonderful dinner. We’ve been having most of our dinners curtesy of Amma’s Kitchen.
Some pictures of our day can be found here.
