The Yellow Festival

Out of all the festivals, there are in India, there is one of them that gives a different kind of excitement, especially to the children. That festival is not just a festival. It is also a day for the children to wear something yellow and not their boring school uniforms to school. It is also the day that marks the beginning of one of the four seasons that India witnesses.

Goddess Saraswati; Source: India Today

Guessing what is being talked about and what this festival might be? This festival is called as Basant Panchami or Vasant Panchami. This is the festival that, even though has a festive ring to it, isn't much of a festival. Where on one side, the elders and adults celebrate and worship, the children just wait in order to wear something yellow in colour and go to school.

Vasant Panchami got its name from the fact that it is observed on the fifth (Panchami) day of the waxing cycle of the lunar eclipse.

Vasant Panchami is the festival that marks the beginning of the preparation for the spring season to arrive in India. Not only that but in some areas and regions, this day is also marked in order to start the preparation of Holika Dahan or Holi. These two festivals occur exactly after 40 days of the Vasant Panchami.

This festival is also celebrated by praying to the goddess of learning, Devi Saraswati. Goddess Saraswati is also believed to be a symbol of love and longing, creative energy and power. A Saraswati pooja marks the main celebration on this day.

Besides all of this, on the day of Vasant Panchami, the fields of mustard are cultivated. The bright yellow fields are cultivated, which also marks why only the colour yellow has significance on this day. The farmers keep in mind to sow the fields in time so that they can cultivate their fields right on time for the festival.

The colour yellow also has another reason of being important on the day of Vasant Panchami besides being the colour of the mustard that is cultivated. Yellow colour is also said to be the favorite colour of Goddess Saraswati, who is worshipped on the day.

The festival of Vasant Panchami is celebrated in different ways in the whole of India. The people who celebrate the day as a day to pray in front of Goddess Saraswati believe in a tradition which is known as Vidyarambham. This tradition signifies and means the beginning of education and seeking knowledge. This tradition is also considered to be a ritual in some of the places and regions in India. The ritual is known as Aksharabhyasam.

The day of Vasant Panchami is seen as a really auspicious and lucky day. A lot of people who celebrate this day prefer getting married on this day or perhaps making their children hold the pencil for the first time.

Despite the fact that Vasant Panchami is the day of Goddess Saraswati, this day has initially celebrated the awakening of Lord Shiva from his deep sleep of meditation.

Goddess Parvati, wanting his husband to herself, wanted to wake Lord Shiva from his deep meditation. However, when she was unable to do that herself, she took the help of Kama. The Kama, in order to wake Lord Shiva from his meditation, prepared an arrow to be shot at Lord Shiva. That arrow wasn’t just an ordinary one but was made of flowers and bees.

In the hope that the sugarcane arrow would awaken Lord Shiva, Kama shot the arrow towards him. It certainly did awaken Lord Shiva from his deep sleep, however, it also opened Lord Shiva’s third eye.

The opening of the third eye towards the Kama led him to get burned to ashes. It was said that Kama's wife, Rati brought his husband back to life later on. However, this was the initiative that had celebrations followed and then was turned into Vasant Panchami.

The yellow festival of India is not just like any other festival. Despite being of less significance, it is compared to that of Holi or perhaps Diwali, it still is one of the festivals that is celebrated by the whole of India. Not only that but schools and colleges also do not stay back in celebrating this day with their students just like all the households and their residents.