Chapter 4: Hindu Traditions Each culture and religion has its own set of traditions and customs. Actually, sociologists claim that civilizations cannot be considered as such if they have no unique traditions. Since Hinduism is known as the oldest religion in the whole world, it is pretty obvious that it has a lot of traditions and customs. Some of these traditions are extremely important that believers are willing to sacrifice lives for them. This chapter will discuss some of the most common customs and traditions observed by Hindus. 1. Before starting any commercial activity or religious ceremony, Hindus chant a mantra to worship Ganesha. 2. Arranged or fixed marriages are common, but they only happen between couples that belong to the same …show more content…
Almost all marriages are of fixed type. However, the willingness of the groom and bride is still important. 18. A married woman indicates her marital status by wearing toe rings, a mangalsutra (i.e. a type of necklace) around her neck, and wrist bangles. 19. They celebrate many festivals whole year round. They do this to honor the gods and goddesses. The deities with the most number of festivals dedicated to them are Laxmi, Ganesha, Parvati, Shri Ram, Kartikeya, Hanuman, Shiva, Shri Krishna, and Vishnu. 20. Hindus believe that they can stop evil forces from getting inside residential buildings by tying a black doll right above the front door. 21. They often put lemons under their vehicles before going on a long journey. Hindus believe that this ritual can save the traveler from dangerous situations. In addition, they sometimes light an incense stick and break a coconut fruit in front of the vehicle. 22. Every house has an altar that contains little statues of various Hindu gods. Hindus worship and clean these statues on a daily basis. 23. Hindus believe that paradise is located at the Northern part of the Earth and that Hell is located at the South. Because of this, they make sure that all images and statues of Hindu gods are not facing the South. This principle is implemented in Hindu homes and
The Hindu people who are pictured in the video segment, Budanilkantha: A Hindu Wedding, are practicing a custom of many Hindu people. A custom is the frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes a characteristic of the group of people performing the act. Although not all Hindus participate in arranged marriages, the acts that occur during the marriage are very similar. Before the wedding takes place, the bride receives a jewel that marks the central part in her hair which is a signal of her marriage.
Before I read Stephen Prothero’s God Is Not One, I did not know much about Hinduism. For me, Hinduism conjured the images of bright colors, richly adorned statues, and jovial worship and dance. When we visited the Ganesh Temple in Flushing, that is exactly what I saw. Yet, now I know the reason for all these things. Although Hinduism is a largely varying tradition, it is namely about love and celebration. Given the evidence from Prothero’s book and my observations at the Ganesh Temple, Hinduism is a tradition that aims to gives purpose to human’s wandering souls through devote worship to deities and rituals.
Hinduism practiced by individuals, certain groups, mass festival, and at the temple. In the beginning of the film, the narrator’s guru confessed his devotion to Kali – meaning that individuals can choose certain god which fits his will. interesting thing is that people having primary god means Hindus categorized into different sections depending on their gods. Those categorized people could experience tension between one another in my opinion. However, the existence of millions of gods decrease the tension between the groups. The festival of Saraswati was the perfect example to practice the religion for certain groups. The students celebrate the festival to refresh their motivation and seeks higher will to learn. Yet, there was another form of practice – mass festival like other religions. The example was the Ganges River cleansing festival. The river was considered sacred, pure, and has a power of cleansing sins of whomever bath himself/herself. To me, the catering of thousands of people trying to cleanse their sins off shows the power of the religion and devotion of Hindus. Also, the most common form of practicing religion is temples. Hindu temples have its own architecture and art forms to amaze people.
Aboriginal region incubates many rituals and rites within their practices. Males and females both go through coming of age rites. Rituals are practical in large community setting to promote intensity. Rituals and rites such as circumcision, seclusion, and ornate decorative dressing are common. In Hinduism one of the most well known rituals was sacrifice. This was mostly practiced during the Vedic period. Nowadays death gives the most intricate rituals because of the unique view on the
Hinduism is considered by many to be the oldest religion in the world that is still in practice today. Followers of the Hindu religion, called Hindus, make up the third largest religion in existence. Hinduism is mostly a polytheistic religion, meaning that most Hindus believe in many gods and goddesses, although some sects of Hinduism do believe that there is one supreme deity. Hindus traditionally have four life goals: moksa, dharma, artha, and karma. Like most religions, Hinduism has spread to the West. With this expansion of religion comes the use of sacred religious gods and symbols in Western pop culture. Many times, the use of Hindu religious symbols by non-Hindu Westerners is culturally appropriating and unnecessary. However, other times what some consider to be culturally appropriating is not so at all to others.
Non Hindus were also drawn to these festivals. The Hindu temples in Australia are growing as well. They are giving people places to worship and learn about Hinduism. The temples are becoming more than just places to worship but to celebrate
In addition, Hindu Temples such as Malibu Hindu Temple has a correlation to the universe itself and to the body of divine beings. In the case of India, followers believe that a single glimpse of the temple tower is enough to destroy one’s sins (P 317). Apart from the practice of temple worship followers of Hinduism their devotion to spiritual teacher or to their deities through puja rituals that are performed at home. Followers of Hinduism set aside some spaces of a cabinet shelf at their home to act as a shrine to hold small images or pictures of their revered figures. In addition, family members engage themselves in daily puja whereby they recite prayers, they offer food to their deity, and they light oil lamps and incense sticks. Similarly, Hindus engage themselves in elaborate rituals such as giving an offering to the Satyanarayana on the days of the full-moon. Most of the domestic rituals are conducted by women, for example in the case of India, women come together on certain days of the year to celebrate the goddess by fasting, feasting, and engaging themselves in auspiciousness rituals for the happiness of their
In the lives of individuals ordinary they are satisfying their customs and conventions. The act of Hinduism is a religion which favored a number of these ceremonies into observances and consecrated occasions in their day by day life. A devotee who takes after the Hinduism religion must study the conviction framework, the ceremonies and convention, and their social practices in which they consider holy to them, keeping in mind the end goal to comprehend this practice. Keeping in mind the end goal to comprehend, the first step would be to know their convictions. Hindu supporters have numerous Gods in the religion of Hinduism, they trust that stand out of there Gods is the genuine god. Hindus has a faith in karma, that it is one of the laws of the world, they feel that in the event that you do great things, then great things will happen to you and in the event that you do things that are pessimistic, then adverse things will happen to that individual. They likewise trust that a dairy animals is holy, in light of the fact that it speaks to life they could call their own and different
Over time traditions came together to develop recognizable religious traditions which was eventually known as Hinduism. Hindu’s have many different practices such as Sanatana Dharma, Vedic worship, yoga and many other different rituals. Hindu’s also have many other beliefs and celebrations such as reincarnation, karma, prana, puja, samsara and many more. Hinduism is known for its beliefs, practices and gods and as the years pass by the religion still stands strong to what they believe.
First off, the Hindus are not like the Christians in a sense that Hindus believe in multiple “Gods”, whereas Christians believe in a monotheistic god. The Hindus have some interesting medical beliefs such as, many Hindus believe that illness is punishment for a person's sins, and Hindus have a large belief in “Faith Healing”. To really piece it together the Hindus believe that being good to their god, will be rewarded with a healthy body and healing
Family traditions and religion greatly impact the lives of many people in India. These elements of culture are reasons that form the way that Indians lead their lives. Both factors make up what type of person that individual will become. That is the reason why religion and family traditions are so valued in Indian society.
There are many types of festival in Hinduism. One of the festival they celebrate in here is called Holy Gidhibali. They paint their faces with colors and before they do this festival,
Hinduism is very similar to many religions. Hindus have gods whom they worship and have relationships with. They have Brahmins, who are priests, who conduct all of the necessary public rites and sacrifices. Also like many religions, Hinduism has sacred writings from which they look to for to guidance and for the knowledge of their practices and beliefs. They have the Vedas, there are four in the collection of the Vedas, with the most important being the Rig-Veda. It is the main and the oldest, it contains over one thousand hymns and reflecting the religious devotion of long-established family and other groups. There is one thing that makes Hinduism different than many religions though, Hinduism is an orthopraxy religion where others are orthodoxy in practice.
In fact, like many Hindu families, we have a small shrine in our house to perform important ceremonies. Also, I have been going to the temple every Sunday for as long as I can remember, and I have been attending the BalaVihar program, which teaches young Hindus all about our beloved culture.
Marriage is a significant social event in contemporary society. It is a means of building new bonds between two individuals and their subsequent families. The foundations of memorable weddings are built on those that bring often-distant family and friends together for the occasion, while dressed in their most sophisticated attire, surrounded by elegant flowers, a night of dancing, captured through the lens of an exceptional photographer. Although Hinduism and Islam are two extremely distinctive religions, their matrimonial customs do share some comparable elements, like most other cultural wedding ceremonies. In both religions, they are devotedly obedient concerning religious and cultural practices in their marital ceremonies.