Are you wondering why I am wearing yellow clothes? It's because today is Basant Panchami! Basant Panchami is an important Hindu festival and is also called Vasant Panchami & Shri Panchami. The festival is celebrated as the birthday of Maa Saraswati, welcomes the arrival of the spring season, and marks the start of preparations for Holi. Maa Saraswati is the Goddess of knowledge, learning, creativity, music, academics and arts. She is depicted as a compassionate Goddess with four arms holding a Veena, a book, and a rosary. She is depicted wearing a white color saree symbolizing learning & purity. She sits on a white lotus to convey that only true knowledge can arise from the dirt of ignorance, unawareness & misdeeds and lead us to spirituality. The lotus also symbolizes the groundedness after the achievement of knowledge. ‘Basant’ in Hindi means spring (season) & Panchami means the 5th day. Therefore, as the name suggests, Basant Panchami is celebrated on the 5th day of the (Type only) - ‘Magha’ month of the Hindu calendar. This day is considered as the first day of spring season in Hindu culture. It is also considered auspicious to start learning new things & new skills, enrolling in any course, starting studies, taking admission in any arts and music course on this day. There is a very interesting mythology story behind this day. According to the story, legendary Sanskrit poet, author & playwriter Kalidasa was once about to commit suicide in a river after learning that his wife left him. Just as he was about to do so, Maa Saraswati emerged from the river and asked Kalidasa to bathe in it. Afterwards, his life was transformed as he was endowed with insight and developed into a talented poet. Basant Panchami is mainly celebrated in India - Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh with great devotion & enthusiasm. People observe fast & travel to temples to worship Maa Saraswati to gain her blessings for creativity, knowledge and wisdom. Since, Mustard flowers bloom in North India during the spring associating the festival with the color yellow, People wear yellow clothes and eat food items having yellow color. Along with yellow flowers & yellow sweets offerings, hymns and mantras honoring Maa Saraswati are also recited. In West Bengal and adjoining regions, Basant Panchami is celebrated a little differently by bringing in Maa Saraswati Idol and worshiping her in traditional Bengali style. Isn’t it amazing how interesting and beautiful Hindu culture & mythology is? On that note, Happy Basant Panchami to all of you!

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• basant panchami
• hindu festivals

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