WESTERN ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES: SRaaDH`DH
= HALLOWEEN DAY which is defined in the Webster's Third International Dictionary
as follows:
"the evening preceding All Saints' Day : the evening of October 31 which is
often devoted by young people to merrymaking (as with jack-o'-lanterns) and
playing pranks sometimes involving petty damage to property"
The following is the description of SRaaDH`DH
belief system TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND HONOUR ONE'S ANCESTORS
AND RELATIVES in various countries and human races...you will be
surprised how the root essence is so similar in all mankind.....:
BHAART (INDIA)
The veDik peoples of
bhaart deeply and firmly believe in
the continual connections of the living humans to the ancestral souls
stretching back to known lineages and alos to the head of the
goTR at the time creation cycle starts in each
veDik time concept of
bRHmaa-klp of 8.64 billion years
and each 4-yug creation cycle of
4.32 million years.
And with this belief the veDik peoples
continually acknowledge, pray to and honour and revere their ancestors in all
their daily activities and rituals of life through
SRaaDH`DH ceremonies and celebrations. In addition to the
daily SRaaDH`DH ceremonies, 15 days
of the kruSHAN pKSH (dark half)
portion 11th lunar veDik calendar
month is dedicated for performing special vidhio
= veDik rites for various types of relationship of their
ancestors and various modes of their deaths. These are called
SRaaDH`DH
vidhio and are meant to bring welfare for the departed
ancestors and also recieve from the departed ancestors blessing of welfare for
themselves and their current and future progeny.
There is a lot of information posted on this web site in the archives of
AASHRAM NEWS PAGE and on
VED PAGE on
SRaaDH`DH...this year these previous postings will be updated
with more knowledge as has been done for the last few years........
ENGLAND:
The English children celebrate Halloween Night
on November 5th of every year with bonfires and parties. However, in England
the belief is to celebrate the foiled attempt by Fawkes and his fellow
conspirators to blow up the England's parliament on November 5, 1605.
GERMANY:
The Germans believe that the spirits of their relatives return to visit
them on October 31st every year. And the Germans welcome the visiting spirits
of their relatives with rituals of their families. On this day the Germans
take special care to keep all the knives out of sight in their homes so that
the visiting spirits of their relatives would not be accidentally hurt by the
knives.
IRELAND:
Among Ireland's Celtic people, there is belief which is recorded since 5th
century B.C. that the souls of their dead return to visit them in the next 12
months on every Halloween Night on October
31. Celtic people attempt to keep these soul visitors away from themselves by:
- keeping their homes colder than normal by putting out whatever
system they use for heating their homes; and
- dressing in frightening costumes and parading around making loud and
frightening noises.
JAPAN:
The Japanese call the remembering and honouring of their departed
ancestors and relatives as O-BON festival.
O-ben is celebrated in August every year throughout Japan. Japanese guide the
souls of their dead ancestors and relatives to their homes by hanging special
lanterns made for the occasion in and outside their homes. The light of the
lanterns is believed to light the path of the visiting souls. Food is also
offered to the visiting souls with a ceremony and ritual in each home.
MEXICO:
Halloween Day is called the Day of Dead
among Mexicans. On this day the families visit the cemeteries to clean up and
decorate the graves of their dead family members. They dress up with colourful
Mexican clothes and the decoration of the graves is alos very colourful with
flowers and banners. The local alcoholic liquor Tequila is drunk while playing
Mexican music.
NORTH AMERICA:
Halloween Night is celebrated as a fun
evening for children as follows without much of a belief system:
- Homes put up lanterns made from pumpkin or other material portraying
frightening bodies of spirits and ghosts;
- Children and youth dress up in all kinds of theme costumes and with make
up to portray themselves as ghosts, goblets, monsters, witches, magicians and
nowadays alos as famous Hollywood characters of this earth as well as aliens
from outer space;
- children then go around homes for trick-or-treat ritual whereby a child
will knock on the door of the home and when the door is opened the child will
say trick-or-treat and usually as nobody wants to be tricked the homeowner
will give the child a treat of candies, fruits or any other packaged eatables.
(NOTE TO THE READER FROM SRii chmpklaal:
YOU are welcome to add to the above if YOU have information of similar
celebrations to acknowledge the existence of souls of ancestors among any race
or tribe on this planet earth. You can email the information to be posted to
PVAF
by clicking on the preceding red
highlite or you can post your knowledge by as an addition to this news posting
by simply clicking on the POST A COMMENT in
the header of this news posting and writing away as much as you wish...whenever
you wish and as many times as you wish....)
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