Naag Panchami |
Snake Worshipping Festival |
| The fifth day of Shravan, in July / August, is dedicated to snake worship. Practice : The Naag culture is quite common in India. Snake charmers start gathering snakes, thereby saving the lives of the young serpents. Live cobras or their images are worshipped.
Shiva is also worshipped since he wears snakes as ornaments. Snakes are feed milk and sweets, and released into the forests. Worshippers search for holes where snakes are likely to be found. When they have found a hole, they make periodic visits, placing before it milk, bananas, and other food that the snake is likely to fancy. |
| Legend/s: |
| Snake worship is more common in peninsular India than in the north. On this day,
ploughing a field is forbidden. Legend has it that on this day, while tilling his land, a
farmer accidentally killed some young serpents. The mother of these serpents took revenge by biting and killing the farmer and his family, except one daughter, who happened to be praying to the Nagas. This act of devotion resulted in the revival of the farmer and the rest of his family. |
 Another
legend speaks of Kaliya, the
snake that inhabited the waters of the River Yamuna, whose venom was so vile that it
poisoned the river and killed the crops and animals in the region.Krishna, one of Vishnu's avatars, killed Kaliya and liberated the people. Naga Panchami has prevailed ever since. Battis Shirala is a tiny, obscure village in the south of Maharashtra. It enjoys the distinction of housing the world's largest collection of snakes. Generations over generations of people in the village have been trained to control snakes, perform before visitors, and create hypnotic sounds with clay pots. |
| Celebrations: |
 On this day,
the women draw figures of snakes on the walls of their houses using a mixture of black
powder, cow dung and milk. Then offerings of milk, ghee, water and rice are made. It is believed that in reward for this worship, snakes will never bite any member of the family. In Maharashtra, snake charmers go from house to house carrying dormant cobras in cane baskets, asking for alms and clothing. In Kerala, snake temples are crowded on this day and worship is offered to stone or metal icons of the cosmic serpent Ananta or Sesha. Altars in many Kerala homes have a silver or copper cobra that is worshipped and offered milk and sweets as families pray for the welfare of their children and for prosperity. In Punjab, the festival is celebrated in September-October and is called Guga Naumi. A snake made of dough is taken round the village in a basket, and an offering of flour and butter is made from each house. The 'snake' is then buried. In West Bengal and parts of Assam and Orissa, the snake deity worshipped on Naga Panchami is the goddess Manasa. |
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Women worship Ananta
( thousand-headed Ananta is Vishnu's couch and also holds up the earth) the cosmic snake
in temples.