Adventure Time!

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Rakhi

In India there is a holiday called Rakhi, it is for brothers and sisters. On August 24th, all the sisters in India go to their brother's houses with sweets and tie a string on their brother's wrist then, the brother has to give the sister a gift. If the sister can't tie the string then a cousin or other female relative ties the string on for her. It even applies to people who don't have siblings or any sisters beacuse as I said above a cousin or female relative can be a substatute.
The tradition was started a long time ago when India was still broken up into little states and each state was ruled by a King or Queen. There was this one state being attacked by mongrels and they had very little protection and defenses so the Queen of the state sent a message and a string from her Saree to the King of another state asking him for protection and help. She said that he was now her brother and he responded by saving her kingdom. Ever sense then they have this holiday showing that the brother will always protect the sister and that the sister will always look after the brother.
I think it is a lovely holiday and one that can encompass everybody.

2 comments:

  1. I'm all for a sibling holiday. As you know, I have a very special sibling, without whom I would not have you as my favorite niece! I bet Rob would love to have you give him a present. But let me ask you, when they tie a string around the wrist does the sister have to be attached to the other end for the whole day? Are you tied together?

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  2. I think it's a lovely holiday too! We do need to celebrate our siblings, for sure. Thanks for sharing this. Keep up the posts, as possible. Love ya, Mom

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