BY PUSHPITA PRASAD

For Hindus across the world, it’s the time to mark the festival of Basant Panchami, dedicated to the worship of Devi Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning and Music and celebrating the advent of spring. In a way it is the perfect combination because Saraswati symbolizes creativity and was herself born on this day, just like the nature itself emerges from winter and renews  the world with new creativity each spring. This is also the time, swaths of the Indian countryside is aflame with fields of mustard, their trademark flowers associating Basant Panchami with the golden mustard color in more ways than one.

The festival derives its name itself from the season of spring-variously known as ‘Basant’ or ‘Vasant’ and the word ”Panchami” meaning fifth – in this case the fifth day of the month of Magha, in the Shukla Paksha, as tracked by the Hindu Lunar calendar. Not many realize it, but the day also begins the countdown to Holi, which always follows 40 days later,with its explosion of colors-showing the deep linkages of Hindu festivals to one another as well as to holistic cycles of nature itself.

Global yet local

A world without Devi Saraswati would be one shrouded in ignorance, no wonder than that through history, Basant Panchami was an eagerly awaited milestone. And it was not just the sweep of the Indian subcontinent, celebrations extended all the way to Bali and Indonesia, where Hindus still celebrate the day as “Hari Raya Saraswati”. Quite befittingly, the celebrations take center stage in schools, where students arrive dressed in their best to pray, sing and dance – honoring the very arts the Devi herself exemplifies. Children also partake in ceremonies that would feel familiar to Hindus across the globe — placing their books before the Goddess for her blessings.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dharmalens/2023/01/celebrating-basant-amid-a-shrinking-footprint/