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Diwali is a Festival of Hindu. Its celebrated over five days in india. First Day is Dhanteras, Read about same Dhanteras:-
Hindu celebrate the Festival,
Dhanteras or
Yamadeep in India and around the world. This Festival falls in October or November month that Diwali Festival marks the beginning of the five-day Festival
Significance of Dhanteras
'
Dhan' refers to wealth while '
trayodashi' means thirteenth day. Therefore, Dhanteras is literally translated as wealth on the thirteenth day. On this day, prayers are offered to the goddess
Lakshmi, asking her for her blessings in the form of wealth. She is also asked to provide prosperity in all business endeavours for the coming year.
Dhanteras is considered a very auspicious day and is celebrated with great pomp, especially by members of the trading community.
Dhanteras Story
Dhanteras is observed two days before
Diwali. A famous story, or Katha, associated with Dhanteras narrates why
Goddess Lakshmi visits homes on Dhanteras. On the Dhan Teras day, people clean their houses and invite Goddess Lakshmi by lighting an earthen lamp at the doorstep of the house.
Dhanteras is observed on the thirteenth day of the dark fortnight (waning phase of moon) in Kartik month as per traditional Hindu calendar in North India. The corresponding period in other regions is the dark fortnight of Ashwin month.
Once Goddess Lakshmi wanted to accompany
Lord Vishnu to the earth during one of His visits. Lord Vishnu agreed to take Her with him provided She will not fall for earthly temptation and will not look in the southern direction.
But Goddess Lakshmi was tempted to look in the southern direction and when she got an opportunity she looked in the southern direction.
In southern direction she saw yellow mustard flowers and started dancing in the fields and decorated herself with the flowers. She fell for earthly temptations.
Further south she saw sugarcane fields and started enjoying the sugarcane juice.
Lord Vishnu soon found out that Goddess Lakshmi had violated the conditions and said that now you will need to spend 12 years as laborer in the field of the person to whom the sugarcane and flowers belonged.
With the arrival of Goddess Lakshmi as laborer the farmer became very prosperous. Twelve years passed and it was time for Goddess Lakshmi to return.
But the farmer was not ready to relieve a good laborer. So he offered Goddess Lakshmi more wages. But Goddess Lakshmi still wanted to leave; the farmer offered more things and this denial and offers continued.
Finally, Goddess Lakshmi asked the farmer and his family to take a pilgrimage to Ganga River and they will decide on her future stay there on his return. Goddess Lakshmi also gave four small shells to the farmer to offer to Goddess Ganga.
When the farmer was offering the shells to River Ganga, four hands came up and accepted the offering.
Farmer soon realized that the shells he offered was no ordinary shell and the person who gave it was no ordinary woman. He prayed to Goddess Ganga to enlighten him. Goddess Ganga then revealed that the woman at the farmer’s home is Goddess Lakshmi.
The farmer returned home happily realizing that it was Goddess Lakshmi who was staying in his house. He requested her not to leave. Goddess Lakshmi said that she cannot live on earth permanently and has to return. But she said that she will visit him on all Dhanteras day. She asked the farmer to keep the house clean and light and earthern lamp.
The farmer said as directed by Goddess Lakshmi and he became very prosperous and people who came to know about the incident started performing the same ritual on Dhanteras day.
Dhanteras Celebration
Since Dhanteras is considered to be auspicious with regard to wealth and prosperity, women in the household make it a point to buy
articles or ornaments of gold or silver on this day.If this is not possible, women will at least buy a few new utensils for the home. This is because the purchase of new '
dhan', especially in the form of a precious metal is said to bring
good luck to the home.
On the
evening of Dhanteras, a
Lakshmi puja is performed to ask for prosperity in the coming year. Also, tiny clay diyas or lamps are lit in order to ward off evil spirits. Devotional songs called
bhajans are sung in praise of the Goddess. In Maharashtra, there is an added custom of '
Naivedya'. In this custom, a mixture of pounded coriander seeds and jaggery is prepared as a traditional sweet and offered to the Goddess. In Southern India, cows are adorned with ornaments and worshipped on this day as they are considered to be the reincarnation of the
goddess Lakshmi.
Speak My Friend - Lakshmi Mata Ki Jai :)
