The cowdung festival...

I too like what Vikingswest1 wrote. I earned some decent sum. LOL

Exactly

@vandana7

Yes. LOL. Actually, the original festival required people to clear the stock of food at home by preparing food with rice ..tamarind rice, rice pudding and whatever was bad across the winter storage would be ground and used outside the house in a specific place allocated for drawing like that... for sole reason that spoiled food is not consumed, and whatever is there gets eaten by ants since ants are recognized as scavengers. Spending time in the morning doing that art work is good for women folk... because back then only men went out to earn, so vitamin D deficiency was an issue. But over the years...we have started using other chemicals to make those designs. By linking it all with religion helped to ensure goodbye to gloominess of winter and put everybody on track for upcoming spring and summer activities. Religion for some reason ensures compliance. Logic does not. Cow dung was to ensure that hard work of the person drawing those designs does not go in vein...possibly also to attract the right type of insects... prevent them from entering the house if they can get food outside the house. And possibly to prevent people from stepping over ants...which cannot be a pleasant experience.

@vandana7 Why not just dispose of all the rotten food or burn them.Why use Cow dung?

@askme123 Food stuff attracts rats, ants, cockroaches. But when used out in open, the insects get to eat it, and they don't enter the house for more. May be that was the reason the food was never thrown out in open. Fresh harvest needs to be stored. So older stuff needs to be removed. Our storage system was not exactly as good as contemporary systems. So harvest time, we had this emptying session. Some of the pickles are also made in this season like lime pickle, ginger pickle, tomato pickle and chillie pickle. Fresh pickles for new year, the season ..such fruits and vegetables are cheap. Burning food was not done back then.

Did you not find it amusing?

@vandana7 Yes it was amusing.

Neither would I. India is such a diverse nation. I studied in the Northern and Western parts of this country where this tradition does not exist. The first time I had tough time controlling my laughter.

@vandana7 We have many different ones here. But I dont know of any based around any kind of poop

You did not know we use cowdung on our rangolis (designs on floor)?

@vandana7 No dear I didn't knew used as rangolis. People use to make cowdung wall or flooring that I knew

I don't know. We have two sets of harvest. I guess it had something to do with storage system back then. Idea was to clear the old stock of rice, as it would soon get worms and insects. Clean the floor such that none of the old grain remains.. store new rice in there. Whatever is collected from floor and whatever food is spoiled grind it... make a powder and use it for art. Ants and insects eat that as well. Ants do serve as scavengers. Rats, lizards, roaches...are consumed by them. By putting such designs with that foodstuff powder, it is possible to keep the ants outside the home, instead of them coming inside the house in search of food. Cow dung may have been used to prevent others stepping on the art. Then again it may have been done to prevent people being bitten by ants. I really don't know what thinking went behind it. But even daily remaining food would be dried ground and used like that...effectively exposing womenfolk to sunlight and vitamin D. Back then, the only chore women did outside was fetching water and vegetables. Deep thinking went behind it, I am sure. Just that we don't know it.

I think many factors work there. 1 - they have to shop in a different way. We tend to buy at mom and pop shops...next door, so the crowd is sorta divided. They have downtown shopping .. that may be the cause. Then we have cheaper home delivery. 2. People taking vaccines tend to be careless thinking it will not affect them, or their hospitalization bills will not be much. In the developed world, there is confidence that government will foot the bill. Same is not true in India, where health insurance penetration is rather limited and government responsibility too. 3. In this subcontinent ..we have more of O blood group, for some reason this blood group has lower susceptibility. I am not sure of course. But I read somewhere that people with O blood group are less preferred by the virus. Happy New Year Bro. Hugs.

I spent the night trying to come up with something that a blond would understand and could do. I was hoping Pony would give us some romantic numbers for starters...

@xander6464 Pony is authentic blond. He just doesn't understand...P A T H E T I C blond.

@vandana7 That is a great idea. Have you hinted? We blonds are really good at taking hints.

Well, we Indians are truly organic. LOL If Prashu comes here, she might just get mad at me. Kinda, it is poking fun at these things, after all, and people are touchy. But then, it is funny for me too.

Now you know why I am so pee, poop and fart obsessed. It is traditional thing. LOL

@vandana7 I feel enlightened. I don't exactly know why I am so pee, poop and fart-obsessed. Maybe because they're universal, like eating and breathing.

Is that so? As far as I know...cow gives milk, bull gives piss.

@vandana7 Bull give sperm to happy female cows. Steer gives yummy meat.

They are beautiful designs made from white powder at the entrance. I agree to each his own...so long as I am allowed to laugh.

@vandana7 Thanks for the explanation.

Oh Oh... somebody is gonna feel bad with that. LOL

@mildredtabitha Oh no...I am not hurt at all, some people cannot see humor in something like cow's poop.

@vandana7 I didn't mean to hurt anyone

Logical answer is .. in ancient days they must have had a mad cow disease bout. They may have noticed that cow's meat has something to do with it. So they may have linked it with religion making it sacred to prevent it being slaughtered and eaten. Illogical answer is... well, every religion has some fools. We suffer ours.

@vandana7 Thanks for the answer.