India is a land of great food, great people and of course festivals. Rarely a week goes by where there isn’t a holiday of some sort. I recently heard that there were 40 recognized government holidays, which translates into: there are 40 reasons to take the day off and celebrate something. This can be very frustrating when you need to access a government service, such as getting a passport or driver’s license, but if you want to learn about the Indian culture and Hinduism, it is a great opportunity to see how this country celebrates and what they believe is important.
Many people have heard about Diwali, which is the biggest festival in India. It can be compared to Christmas in North America in terms of length, importance and the tradition of gift giving. But the most fascinating festival I have taken part in is Ayuda Puja. A Puja is an act of devotion, or basically, a prayer. However it is a bit more complex, as the act of Puja often requires the burning of incense and offering of foods to whatever it is you are praying to.
On the day of Ayuda Puja, every person worships the tool or the instrument which he or she uses for earning their salary, or “bread” as they would say in India. This means that if you are a bus driver you will worship your bus, a sewer their sewing machine, or an office worker their computer.
Workstations are decorated with flowers and blessed for the Ayuda Puja
The act of Ayuda Puja is very important and often very elaborate. The bus driver will not only bless his bus, but then decorate it with garlands, flowers and possibly banana leaves. It is an incredible site to see all the vehicles on the streets decorated this way. I happened to be at the airport on the day of Ayuda Puja and was amazed to see all the vehicles on the tarmac covered in flowers, including luggage carts and trucks to pull planes back and forth. Everything was decorated, except for the planes themselves. I am assuming they were not only due to safety concerns.
Jasper has fun while helping the drivers bless their mini-vans.
For some people this is a quick Puja that might take only a couple of minutes, however if you are running a sewing factory, the Puja actually takes the better part of 2 days. Although this is not a government recognized holiday it is very important for people in the manufacturing industry and particularly important where we work in Tirupur.
When I was at our factory, I was amazed at the length and intricacy of the process and somewhat confused as to why they would take 2 days off to bless the sewing machines. However, I have learned that when in India, you just have to roll with the culture – best just to accept it and not question it too much. The Puja starts by blessing all your sewing machines, which requires a priest’s help, and the sewers to spread flowers over all the machines. And let’s not forget the burning of incense – you can’t celebrate in India unless you burn incense! Then it’s off to the local temple where you pray for your machines and another good year of manufacturing. As a show of respect to the sewing machines, it is also expected that you clean them. So after you are finished at the temple it’s back to the factory to clean the machines, and if you have 300 of them, this means it will take at least the rest of the day. Lastly, after you have prayed, spread flowers and cleaned the machines, you have to give them the day off too. Yes, machines deserve a day off as much as the rest of us. And so if your machine gets the day off, then you may as well take the day off too.
