Hindu Holidays

The religion of Hinduism is complex and somewhat mysterious to those more familiar with Western religions. In contrast to other religions, Hinduism is not considered to have a single founder, encompasses a multitude of henotheistic religions groups, and has an unlimited numbers of holidays and festivals. Considered the third largest religion in the world after Christianity and Islam, the highest concentration of Hindu's reside in India and the surrounding region, although large groups of Hindu's are found throughout the world as well.

Like other religions stemming from ancient times, Hinduism has sacred texts that play an important role in shaping the religion. The primary texts, originating in ancient India and generally considered the oldest sacred texts in the world still in use, are the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda. The Vedas are mystical in nature. Hinduism explains they are not of human composition but are filled with spiritual knowledge, possibly even all human knowledge. What a person is able to learn from the texts depends on the level of spirituality they are able to personally obtain.

The Vedas contain mantras and rituals that play a role in Hindu prayer, holidays, and ceremonies. Mantras are recited at such events in the form of chanting to bring about spiritual awareness and concentration. The universe is explained as a composition of sounds in the Vedas and existence of things is said to have been brought about by the Supreme through Word (Shabda).

Hinduism is often said to have "a holiday for every day of the year". While some claim the precise number of Hindu holidays is unknown, the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Religions lists more than 1000 different Hindu celebrations. Many of the Hindu holidays celebrate events in nature such as the changing of seasons or harvests, while others recognize Hindu deities (such as Shiva, Ganesh, Rama, or Krishna) or events in the lives of deities. Rituals, prayers, music, dancing, eating, and drinking are all common practices in many Hindu celebrations. While there are a multitude of Hindu holidays, the most commonly practiced and best known include Shivarathri, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Telugu New Year's Day, Navarathri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Krishna Janmashtami, and Ramnavi.