The diary game ||Better Life with Steem||17/05/2025

(SOURCE)[https://www.canva.com/]

Hi friends, Hope you all enjoying weekend holidays

Yesterday, a festival was held in a temple near our village. My husband and I had prepared ourselves in the morning to attend the festival. Since the Kumbabhishekam festival was being held in this temple after 12 years, a large number of people from nearby villages had come. Also, since yesterday was a local holiday and the school was on summer vacation for the students, a large crowd was gathered.

The lingam of the Hindu god Shiva is placed at the center of the temple. This temple is said to be about 300 years old. Although this temple is under the government's maintenance, festivals and pujas are performed by the public. This festival has been going on for three days, and yesterday was the main day, Kumbabhishekam.

Generally, Kumbabhishekam is a traditional festival held to maintain a temple. It is customary to renovate any temple about once every 12 years. It is done by doing repairs, painting it, replacing the kalashas in the tower with new ones, doing other maintenance work, and then once again consecrating and worshiping the idol of the Lord. In this way, this temple was renovated after 12 years, and Kumbabhishekam was performed again.

That is, the abhishekam is done by pouring holy water on the kalash on top of the tower. This gopuram kalash is a three-chambered vessel with a conical top. It is customary to store the seeds of the new grains in this vessel-shaped structure. At that time, there was a custom to store the seeds because in times of war or famine, if we run out of seeds, where can we get them for the next season? It has been a tradition that they still leave them here today. When holy water, i.e. water taken from rivers like the Ganga, Yamuna, Kaveri, Saraswati, and Godavari, is poured on these kalash, it is believed that when abhishekam is done on these kalash, it will remain in good condition for a long time.

The Kumbabhishekam ceremony started at 4 am yesterday and ended around 6 pm, but we were unable to attend the Kumbabhishekam at that time. However, we felt very fortunate and blessed to have darshan of the Lord on that day, so we got ready at around 8 am and went to the temple, but even then there was a long queue of people waiting to have darshan of the Lord, and we also went and stood in it.

The line was moving slowly and we were also moving. There were many vendors selling their wares along the way. The crowd was so large that their business was also doing well. For example, fancy jewelry vendors, book vendors, toy vendors, and flower vendors were there.

Apart from that, there were small playgrounds with swings set up for children to play, which were also businesses where tickets were purchased to play. Similarly, some people were drawing pictures of God on the ground and begging with them. Even though they were begging, people were appreciating their artistic skills and giving them a lot of money.

Since it was summer here, the sun was very high, so the traders were doing business with umbrellas for shade. We also had water damage. We had left our water at home and had no water to drink. But there they were giving away free water, buttermilk, and juice, which we bought and drank. In one place, food called annadanam was being given away for free, and people were also eating it.

Similarly, a large number of people had gathered at one place. When I went there, I saw that various stickers and various photos, especially photos of gods, were being bought at very cheap prices. People were happily buying them and leaving. I was the one who saw them and took a photo.

Thus, visiting this temple yesterday was a new experience for us. We were very happy. Even though the sun was very hot, visiting such a crowded place is a new experience. Post your comments in my comment section.