So, I’ll start by answering the question that probably has been keeping
you awake at night: there was nothing wrong with the car. Yeah!
As the lyric title for the blog indicates, the theme for this week’s
blog entry is festivals. I am going to start with the one currently being
celebrated, write a little about Indian festivals from a macro level, and then
end with some reflections on the “Mormon Festival” we just celebrated. So, put
on your festival celebratory clothes, sit back, and enjoy.
As I write this blog, we are nearing the end of one of the most sacred
festivals, at least in certain parts of India, Navaratri. Navaratri literally
means nine nights (nava = nine and ratri = night) and this festival lasts over ten
days and, yep you got it, nine nights. During Navaratri, the nine incarnations
of the goddess Shakti or Devi (Devi is a Sanskrit word which is the root of our
word divine) are worshipped. Shakti or Devi are two names for the same goddess.
She is the embodiment of the feminine, creative aspect of the divinity. Hindus
believe that without the feminine aspect the masculine aspect of the divine
cannot achieve expression. Goddess worship in several different forms is a
defining aspect of essentially all sects of Hinduism.
There are actually several Navaratri celebrated over the course of the
year and in different parts of India. However THIS Navaratri is Sharad Navaratri
(it takes place in Sharad, which corresponds with our September or October). It
is the largest, most widely celebrated of the various Navaratri. Over the days
and nights of the festival, celebrants fast, eating only one meal a day.
Additionally, depending on the part of India there are certain foods that are
eaten each day and some kinds of food that are strictly avoided. There are religious
ceremonies conducted in temples and at shrines in individual homes each day. In
some states there are colors assigned to the various day so that it is most
auspicious to wear clothing of the color appropriate to each day of the
celebration.
In the TV show Outsourced two expat Americans are discussing the
perplexing number and names of Indian holidays and festivals. The employees of
one of the two had told him that it was Vindaloo Day and that everyone got a
half day off. Now Vindaloo is not a holiday; it’s a type of curry actually, but
the ruse by the employees and the exchange by the two expats is emblematic of
the difficulty I, at least, have had absorbing and understanding the cacophony of
festivals and holidays. I have to say, trying to keep track of each of the
holidays observed in India and the significance of each is daunting. In fact, I
am well and truly daunted.
Like many things in India, there is no simple way to understand the
topic of festivals. Or perhaps more accurately, if you try to simplify the
explanation you will certainly be wrong. Let’s start with the number of
religions. A friend of mine (yes Larry that was you) once asked if India wasn’t
known as the land of 100 gods. Within Hinduism, a great number of Ishvaras, or
personalized gods, are recognized and worshiped. Additionally there are also
many murti and devas that are viewed as influencing human life. Those recognized and the relative importance
given to the various Ishvaras, murti, and devas depends on the Hindu sect.
Whilst Hinduism is nominally the religion of India (historically one of
the names for India was Hindustan, which means country of the Hindus), India
was the birthplace for four great religions: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and
Sikhism. You add to the mix of Hindu sects about 14% of the population being Muslim
(about 210 million people); about 3% being Christian (about 45 million people);
about 2% being Sikh (about 30 million people); about 1% being Buddhist (about
15 million people) and things start getting interesting.
Now just to kick it up a notch, consider this. There are clearly
divisions in Christianity, right? Lutherans see themselves as quite different
from say Episcopalians. And while there are similarities in their beliefs,
modes of worship, etc., there are marked differences. Additionally, how a
Lutheran in, say Sweden, celebrates Easter or Christmas is likely to be quite
different from how a Lutheran in Bavaria celebrates or how one in San Francisco
would celebrate. Hinduism is even less monolithic, I believe, than
Christianity. There are hundreds, probably thousands of sects within Hinduism
each with its own gods, unique forms of worship, and celebration. Additionally,
there are pronounced differences between which festivals or celebrations are
significant from Indian state to state and how those observations actually take
place. Now throw in a couple of hundred million Muslims, another 45 million
Christians, 30 million Sikhs, and 15 million Buddhists, each with their own
holidays, festivals, and traditions and you start to get a sense of the festival
stew. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t festival stews. With about
a quarter of the world’s population and so many belief systems, SOMEBODY has to
have a stew associate with a festival, don’t they?
From a business standpoint, trying to balance all of these celebrations
and festivals to ensure you give time off to employees appropriately is really
a challenge. There are secular holidays like Independence Day and Mahatma
Gandhi’s birthday. Those are easy. Then where do you go? You can’t give
everyone every festival off – no one would ever work. Yet religion is very important
in India, so you can’t slight these festivals either. In some countries in
Europe, the holidays you have are directly related to the religious preference
you claim when you are hired. However, in India there is a great tradition (at
least nominally) of respect and tolerance for different religions. As such
there is some thought that segregating holidays exclusively on personal religious
preference does not show the proper respect one should have for all religions.
What we’ve done at MAII, therefore, is to give everyone one religious holiday
or festival off for each religion. So even if you are not, for instance,
Christian you get Christmas Day as a holiday. Additionally, there are a certain
number of religious holidays that are volitional. One can’t take them all off
but one can chose which ones to take off within a set limit for the total days
off. Kind of like a Chinese menu applied to religious holidays: one from column
A, one from column B, etc.
I find the diversity of beliefs fascinating. I have always enjoyed
studying and learning about different cultures. Often, at least historically, religious
beliefs have a major influence on those cultural expressions. With formalized
religious practice waning in much of the world, I guess one could say that is
less the case now (not to get too controversial but I think traditional religions
have just been replaced with the religion of secular humanism and now we are
seeing the cultural manifestation of that). In any case, here in India the open
expression of religious practices is still alive and well. I don’t know if I
will totally absorb and understand it before we leave; probably not.
So now to the “Mormon Festival” to which I alluded earlier. I know many
of the readers of the blog are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints but not all. So, let me give a little context. For the 183
years of its existence the Church (as we call it) has observed and I would say
celebrated a General Conference twice a year:
in April and in October. During these two Semi-annual Conferences,
believers from all over the world either assemble in Salt Lake or participate
by TV or Internet in six Conference sessions for a total of twelve hours spread
over two weekends each. (Well five of the six sessions happen on one weekend
and one session happens the week before.) During these sessions, Church leaders
give sermons and sacred music is performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other
choirs. These “Conference Weekends” are considered sacred and special to most
members of the Church. They are a time to get spiritually recharged, hear
messages designed to help us deal with the trials and issues we face, and
listen to beautiful and sacred music.
In India, given the differences in time zone, rather than stay up and
watch Conference in the middle of the night, the sessions are recorded and then
played the following week. So, while Conference Weekend was actually last
weekend, we participated yesterday and today. Not to get too gushy, but I thought
this Conference was amazing. Many of the talks were incredibly insightful and
meaningful, at least to me. The selection and performance of the music was also
wonderful. I found myself moved to tears on more than one occasion. There were
several opportunities where I felt prompted to make commitments to improve my
life and redouble my efforts to serve others and be a better disciple of
Christ. It was a great weekend of renewal.
I had never thought of General Conference as festival before, but, I
guess since I was thinking about festivals for this week’s blog, today it
struck me that way. I do know that when a friend of mine, Mike Nowling, applied
for a hospital administration residency with Intermountain Healthcare in Utah,
one of the people with whom Mike interviewed said, “Now, Mike, since you are
not a Mormon, I guess I should tell you about a religious event we have each
October.” Mike said, “I’m not a Mormon but I know about General Conference.”
The interviewer said, “No, I meant deer hunting season.”
I guess even in Utah there is a diversity of religious festivals.
Namaste.
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