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August 19, 2005
Happy Rakhi
So you know how they have those yellow Lance Armstrong bracelets everywhere? The other day I'm listening to the BBC Asian Network and they say “rakhi bands” are trendy now, with Oxfam running this fundraiser.
All this is 'cause today is rakhi, or raksha-bandan, an Indian holiday where sisters tie a string bracelet, the rakhi, around the right wrist of their brothers. They wish for the brother's health and happiness and get a gift or cash in exchange.
Aside from tying rakhis, Rumela.com says Indians are into “fresh flowers, exchange of gifts... new clothes, meeting new and old friends and offering of sweets” and that India's always been known for it's "celebratory fervor.” Not sure exactly what that is, but I think the Indian-Americans' national Bhangra Blowout competition in Washington, D.C., taps into it.
But "the beauty of Indian culture," according to this site, is that a girl can tie a rakhi on the wrist of any guy she feels close to. "Our tradition tells us that the world is our brother and sister... In this way, relationships are strengthened, solidified and purified. The tradition of rakhsha bandhan symbolizes and underscores the way Indians live together as brother and sister -- relationships filled with love, devotion and affection, but devoid of lust, attraction or violence."
On the BBC show, this caller kept giggling when she told the entire tuned-in world she tied 400 rakhis last year. "Most of them were on my gay male friends!" she said, practically in hysterics.
Posted by Dipika at August 19, 2005 8:13 PM
Comments
Just a little note, don't know, suppose everyone know about it, but then again perhapse not.
In the Mälardalen region (Stockholm, Europe) we had some friendship bands that some girls and as well boys where giving eachother when I was younger. It was just way to show that we had a close friendship. It wasn't connected with any perdicular day, just like that, but somehow summer time is always the time where friends and friendships is more meaningfull when you are a kid, because the school holidays and the lovely weather during that period on the north hemishare.
But the tradition or gesture is from my perspatic kind of unnordic, but I'm no expert.
Posted by: Rolf Wallerstein at January 17, 2006 10:41 AM
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