Chennai: Raksha Bandhan is being celebrated today. This is a unique festival that celebrates the special bond between a brother and sister. The relationship between brother-sister is extraordinary and can’t be described in words.
Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu festival that symbolically binds brothers into taking care of their sisters. On the festival of Raksha Bandhan, the sister tie Rakhi (wrist band) on the right wrist of brother and pray for his health, wealth and well-being. In return, the brother promises to protect her from any harm and offers gifts and sweets.
Amid the pandemic, while the celebrations might be low-key, you can still send loving wishes to celebrate the most special bond you have. Even if distances apart, you can make sure you have a good time with your family with these curated greetings. Spread the warmth and cheer no matter what. Here are some greeting messages:
* Dearest sister, First of all, a very Happy Raksha Bandhan. This Raksha Bandhan, I promise I will always hold your back, Whenever you turn back, You will find me always.
* The festival of Raksha Bandhan is to cherish the beautiful memories and strengthen the bond we share. Thinking of you and sending you my warm wishes on this special day.
* I am glad to receive the most precious gift from God that is you sister. Loads of love and Happy Raksha Bandhan!
* Your happiness is my world, my baby sister! Happy Raksha Bandhan!
* My darling brother, I know I fight with you a lot, but today, at an auspicious occasion of Raksha Bandhan, I just want to tell you that you are my world and being your sister is the best feeling in the world.
Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August.
The expression ‘Raksha Bandhan’, in Sanskrit, literally is, “the bond of protection, obligation, or care,” is now principally applied to this ritual.
Until the mid-20th-century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, also held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts, in which a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money; in some places, this is still the case.
In contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location, with some rendered as Saluno, Silono, and Rakri. A ritual associated with Saluno included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brother.
Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy, in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by custom, do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents’ homes every year for the ceremony. Their brothers, who typically live with the parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters’ married home to escort them back.
Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters’ married and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.
In urban India, where families are increasingly nuclear, the festival has become more symbolic, but continues to be highly popular.
The rituals associated with this festival have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration, the movies, social interaction,and promotion.