PUSHKARALU FESTIVAL - ART AND CULTURE
News: Pushkaralu
festival returns to the Ganga after a gap of 12 years
What's in the news?
● The
12-day Pushkaralu festival of
Telugu-speaking people commenced on April 22 in Varanasi, with the Uttar
Pradesh Government expecting more than one lakh Telugu-speaking people to visit
Kashi in the next 10-odd days for the event, which will run from April 22 to
May 3.
Key takeaways:
● The
festival, in which pilgrims will worship
their ancestors and the river Ganga, is being organized in Kashi this year
after a gap of 12 years due to a special combination of planetary transits.
● It
is the second event of the recent past to be organized in Varanasi, after the
Kashi-Tamil Sangamam.
Pushkaralu Festival:
● Pushkaram
is an Indian festival dedicated to the worship
of 12 sacred rivers.
● The
celebration happens annually, once in 12
years along each river.
● Each
river is associated with a zodiac sign, and the river for each year’s festival
is based on which sign Brihaspati (Jupiter) was in at the time.
● This
year's festival involves worshiping ancestors and the river Ganga and is being
organized in Kashi after a gap of 12 years.
Beliefs:
● It
is believed that bathing in the sacred river during Pushkaralu cleanses the
devotees of their sins.
Why is it celebrated once in 12 years?
● In
India, we have 12 major rivers such
as Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Saraswathi, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Bhima,
Tapati, Tungabhadra, Sindhu, Pranhita for which the Pushkaram festival is
celebrated for each river according to the zodiac sign of that river.
● The
12 days after Jupiter enters that particular zodiac sign will be the
Pushkaram/Pushkaralu which is a 12-day festival for that river.