In Odisha each day of the week has its own food related significance. You chose to go vegetarian or be a non-veg in local parlance (In American English there is no term called non-vegetarian, either you are vegetarian or a meat eater). Odias stay vegetarians, some even avoid Onion & Garlic, called TAMASHIK (titillating carnal desire) food on the following days.
MONDAY- Day of Lord Shiva, arguably obeyed by most Odias.
TUESDAY - Day of Maa Mangala and Hanuman.
WEDNESDAY - Budhei Osha. Very few practice this though. Most devour non-Veg food after a hiatus of two days.
THURSDAY - Goddess Laxmi and Saint Sai Baba. Mostly women stay veggie than men on this day.
FRIDAY - Santoshima Brata. The devotees of the Goddess apart from avoiding non-Veg food avoid KHATTA (tangy) stuff like lemon, tomato, tamarind etc
SATURDAY - Lord Shani and Hanuman.
SUNDAY - Lord Surya. Not many follow, as Goat meat features on the menu at many homes during lunch.
Thursday is a day, when you will find very few people in Odisha doing monetary transaction. It's the day of Maha Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. This Thursday, juxtaposed with the Odia festival of MANABASA was a special occasion, so sale of fish, meat and poultry was paltry.
So when I decided to visit the local branch of State Bank to update my father's passbook, I was not surprised to see a less than normal crowd. Not sure why can't the bank get rid of Passbook, which is redundant these days. With the availability of on line banking, a monthly statement sent at the customer's home address should suffice.
If Thursday is the preferred day for banking, visiting the Saint Sai Baba temple on this day is rather avoidable. I got a taste of it, when I visited the temple, not far from where I live. There were a long line starting from the gate, leading Inside the temple.
Inside there was a couple of horizontal cylinders of hollow steel which separated male and female devotees. Few young men were seen bending over the rails, religiously flirting with female devotees. The girls reciprocated with gigges, cherishing the attention from their solicitors from the enamours from other side of the fence. Their chit chat was suddenly drowned by high decibel from the banging of GHANTA (brass plates).
Some turned forward with folded hands, rest continued with their cross barrier flirting, their hands still folded lest they attract God's wrath. A few fell flat on their stomach, uttering PRABHU PRABHU (O' Lord, O' Lord) inside the heavily smoke filled arena which now felt stuffy enough for me to exit. Lesson learnt, if you want to pray in peace, visiting temples on special days are best avoidable.
MONDAY- Day of Lord Shiva, arguably obeyed by most Odias.
TUESDAY - Day of Maa Mangala and Hanuman.
WEDNESDAY - Budhei Osha. Very few practice this though. Most devour non-Veg food after a hiatus of two days.
THURSDAY - Goddess Laxmi and Saint Sai Baba. Mostly women stay veggie than men on this day.
FRIDAY - Santoshima Brata. The devotees of the Goddess apart from avoiding non-Veg food avoid KHATTA (tangy) stuff like lemon, tomato, tamarind etc
SATURDAY - Lord Shani and Hanuman.
SUNDAY - Lord Surya. Not many follow, as Goat meat features on the menu at many homes during lunch.
Thursday is a day, when you will find very few people in Odisha doing monetary transaction. It's the day of Maha Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. This Thursday, juxtaposed with the Odia festival of MANABASA was a special occasion, so sale of fish, meat and poultry was paltry.
So when I decided to visit the local branch of State Bank to update my father's passbook, I was not surprised to see a less than normal crowd. Not sure why can't the bank get rid of Passbook, which is redundant these days. With the availability of on line banking, a monthly statement sent at the customer's home address should suffice.
If Thursday is the preferred day for banking, visiting the Saint Sai Baba temple on this day is rather avoidable. I got a taste of it, when I visited the temple, not far from where I live. There were a long line starting from the gate, leading Inside the temple.
Inside there was a couple of horizontal cylinders of hollow steel which separated male and female devotees. Few young men were seen bending over the rails, religiously flirting with female devotees. The girls reciprocated with gigges, cherishing the attention from their solicitors from the enamours from other side of the fence. Their chit chat was suddenly drowned by high decibel from the banging of GHANTA (brass plates).
Some turned forward with folded hands, rest continued with their cross barrier flirting, their hands still folded lest they attract God's wrath. A few fell flat on their stomach, uttering PRABHU PRABHU (O' Lord, O' Lord) inside the heavily smoke filled arena which now felt stuffy enough for me to exit. Lesson learnt, if you want to pray in peace, visiting temples on special days are best avoidable.
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