Valentine’s Day – from the martyrdom of St. Valentine to Archies and Gary Marshall – has come a long way in popular culture. With globalization, Valentine’s Day has also latched on to native cultures and helped publicize youthful traditions around the world to create a lifetime of memories. One such youthful event is Saraswati Puja, observed primarily by Bengalis, or those with roots in West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh.
Hinduism is a melting pot of cultures, traditions, customs, practices, principles that complement the natural world, everything it nurtures, and their ambitions. To this end, in Hinduism, every aspect of human life is assigned a God/Goddess to offer guidance and bring success. Hence, creation, nurture, prosperity, warfare, protection, destruction, everything has its own deity. Similarly, the Goddess of the Arts and Learning is Saraswati.
Saraswati Puja (worship of Goddess Saraswati) is observed on the first day of Spring as per the Hindu calendar. Goddess Saraswati is celebrated in every institute of education and learning of all levels and disciplines. Students actively participate on the occasion, organizing every aspect of the event – shopping, decorations, worship, logistics, catering. It’s an opportunity for school kids to become the responsible ones.
Talking of growing up, Saraswati Puja is the unofficial Valentine’s Day for Bengali kids. The day is an opportunity for kids to dress up in ethnic wear (the one time in the year they don’t mind doing so) to look their finest in hopes of making a favorable impression. Kids visit schools all over their towns and neighborhoods to pay homage to the Goddess being worshipped there, and to pay court to their special one.
Imagine a 12-15-year-old noob sheepishly approaching a peer and asking them out for a movie or ice cream. Now, multiply that by several millions and you’ve got Saraswati Puja. It’s the day when rumored couples become official after stepping out together to visit schools organizing Saraswati Puja. Parallelly, hearts also break after kids find their crush holding someone else’s hand. Life lessons no classroom could teach.
Despite the weight of confused emotions and hormones in the air, no tradition or custom of Saraswati Puja is ever compromised at any institute of learning. After all, upsetting the Goddess of Learning is a death wish for students. They pray to the Goddess for the next exam to be a smooth sailing. In that effort, students keep their toughest textbooks at the Goddess’ feet during Saraswati Puja for some leverage.
Artists, thinkers, dreamers, and professionals offer their pens, paintbrushes, musical and digital instruments, compositions, research papers, and other means of creation for blessing. They take flowers from the Goddess’ feet to keep close for extra assurance. Saraswati Puja is also an auspicious day to initiate toddlers in formal education by helping them pen their first words. Thus, the day marks a full circle of lifelong learning.
Saraswati Puja is the only opportunity for teens to have a heart-to-heart with their neighborhood crush under the nose of their parents. Kids in Basanti (bright yellow – the color of Spring) ethnic wear biking around town and getting into mischief is a sight to behold and a brilliant flashback for tired adults. On the day, communities feast together and organize cultural events to pass on the torch of learning and creation.
For more:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vasant-Panchami
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saraswati
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