Did you stay awake on Shivaratri?
By preethaanju
@preethaanju (3000)
India
February 21, 2012 8:02am CST
Yesterday was Shivarathri in India.There is a lot of religious rituals associated with it and is still followed in India.One of them is to stay awake the whole night and be in union with the Lord, by reciting the sacred mantras and visiting temples and to pay obeisance to the Lord.How did u celebrate Shivarathri
4 responses
@kiran8 (15348)
• Mangalore, India
22 Feb 12
I did stay awake not because I wanted to do so, but because of other reasons.My maid and her daughter wanted to be part of some ritual where they go stealing fruits and stuff from houses ( I am not sure what relevance this has with the festival?).Anyway, they landed up at our place too and our dog gave them a chase and then another group came and the same thing happened, so all in all I hardly slept that night 
@kiran8 (15348)
• Mangalore, India
28 Feb 12
I am not at all religious but certain rituals and traditions are nice and have become part and parcel of our life style...Shivratri too has many such traditions and rituals attached to it and I am sure that believers do get a lot of happiness and satisfaction when they follow it...
@preethaanju (3000)
• India
23 Feb 12
Nice way to stay awake. In-fact most people have lost the significance of Shivarathri. they think merely staying awake and doing things totally unrelated to religious rituals is enough. its not. There is a strict regimen to follow on Shivarathri. Indulging in playing cards and eve teasing while staying awake is not what has been envisaged in our scriptures
@airamtheb (370)
•
22 Feb 12
I am not from India but I can relate to the kind of religious rituals that you have mentioned. In my religion, we also have what we call as "Good Friday" for the Catholics during the Lenten Season that we take vigil and have some self reflection over our transgressions we have done in our life which are contributing factors that made our God the Father to allow His only begotten son to die on the cross for us.
@preethaanju (3000)
• India
23 Feb 12
yes its almost the same for all religions. except we follow it on different dates and call it by different names. No matter what religion we follow, the ulitmate aim is to clean our mind,body and soul.
@airamtheb (370)
•
24 Feb 12
We always have the same names to these rituals and beliefs and like what you practiced, we also have them on a different dates but usually falls between the months of March and April only.
@sylvia13 (1850)
• Nelson Bay, Australia
21 Feb 12
No, I did not celebrate Shivaratri, as I don't belong to that religion and also I do not live in India. It sounds interesting anyway, especially the part about visiting the temples and paying obeisance to the Lord!
@preethaanju (3000)
• India
23 Feb 12
Yes not likely that Christians will stay awaks on Shivarathri. its for Hindus. Christians follow a very rigid introspection month of Len tin which ends a day prior to Easter. This year on april 6th. Its almost the same in every religion.Cleansing the mind,soul and body forms the basis
@preethaanju (3000)
• India
23 Feb 12
Its your decision and one must respect your decision to be an atheist. its not wrong in anyway. After great sages have said there is no God anywhere,God is man himself. In that context doing good to fellow human beings is akin to doing religious rituals
