bhai dooj 2018 festival wikipedia

Bhai Dooj Festival 2018 : History, Significance & Celebration

Information on Bhai Dooj

Bhai Dooj is a festival comes on the fifth day of Diwali, Hindus celebrate this festival as a festival of brother and sister. After the dazzling festival of lights and all the high-voltage grand festival of Diwali, the last day of the Diwali celebrations is ‘Bhaiya Dooj’ which shows the brother-sister love all over in India.

In entire Northern part of India, observed during Diwali festival. This is the second day of the vikrami samvat new year, the north Indian calendar starts from the lunar month of Kartika.

Bhai dooj is also called Bhai tika in Nepal, bhai phonta in Bengal, bhau beej or bhav bij in Maharashtra. The story behind this festival is, in Hindu mythology after slaying the evil demon narkasur, Lord Krishna visited his sister Subhadra she welcomed him warmly with sweets and flowers and also applied tilak on Krishna’s forehead. This is the origin of the festival.

It is written in Hindu mythology, it is considered that the god of death, Yamraj, had visited his lovable sister named Yami (Yamuna) at this special day. Sister welcomed him by aarti and tilak ceremony. She offered flowers and garland and special dishes with the sweet dishes to eat. After that, he returned her sister a unique gift as a symbol of his love and care towards her sister. It is known as that the brother who receives aarti and tilak from his sister they never get in danger and sisters worship god for the safety of brothers. That’s why the same day is called as the Yama Dwitiya.

How to celebrate Bhai dooj

On this day brother have to visit his sister’s home for the celebration of this festival and to have the foods made by a sister. On this day sisters pray to god to give blessings to their brothers and to protect them from all the problems and bad fortune. Brothers have to follow their responsibilities towards their loving and caring sisters.

In some culture, the sisters make a seat for their brothers by the rice flour to sit on this and receive a ceremony. Sister ties a Raksha sutra in the brother’s hand, tilak on the forehead and offer aarti. The diya is lighted in the south direction, for Yama devata. Sisters apply mehndi on their hands as the custom and tradition. Sisters who are far away from their brothers make pray to the god moon, take aarti for the happiness and prosperity in the life of their brothers.

This day people make the special dishes like basundi poori or kheer poori and other sweet dishes. This festival brings a lot of happiness, affection and warmth between the relationship of brother and sister. This festival is a way to present the love and care of brothers and sisters to each other. Five betel nuts and five betel leaves are placed at the brother’s had by their sisters. Prayers are done by the sisters by pouring water on their hands.