Today, 19th Aug, is the beginning of festive season of 2022 with janmashtami, lord Krishna’s birthday. On this day Lord Krishna was born in Mathura. Kansa was maternal uncle of Krishna who tried to kill him. He was saved by Vasudev and brought by crossing the river Yamuna to Gokul. Then he was raised by Nanda and Yashoda. That is why we celebrate janmashtami, But do you want to know how we celebrated janmashtami, let’s start.
We decorated our home mandir (temple) with flowers and colorful lights. Then we prepared Panjeeri and charanamrit for parasadam to offer to lord Krishna. We had a special dinner menu on the occasion, aloo kachori and kheer(rice pudding). After that we went to the market to bring clothes, flute, jhula (swing), many flowers to make mala (garland), new earrings and mukut (crown) to decorate Krishna idol. We had couple of hours before pooja ceremony so we decided to go to temples in Sector 2, Brahma Sarovar and Vidyapeeth at Kurukshetra. At temples we enjoyed scenic lights and decorations. we had our dinner and again waited till 12am, midnight. At 12am we started pooja ceremony with bhajans. Dressed Krishna statue with new clothes and jewelries, gave him his new flute, garlanded him with mala, offered some sweets and parasadam.
Finally after all celebrations and ceremony we went to sleep quite late. That is how we celebrated Janmashtami this year.
~Twisha Arya