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Ugadi, a new start
The Appadu family (photo) will spend this week as they do each year : shopping for new clothes and preparing everything for the forthcoming festival. This coming Sunday, they will celebrate Ugadi, the Telegu New Year. ?According to our calendar, the Kaliyug, we are starting the year 5105,? explains Ballakrishna. ?It is believed that on Ugadi, the Creator Brahma began his systematic creation of the universe.?
On Ugadi day, they all get up before sunrise and have a purifying bath, to which some teel oil and saffron are added. New clothes are worn. Uma, Ballakrishna?s wife, prepares the ingredients for the Ugadi Pacchadi. This mixture of ingredients combines six tastes : sour mango, acrid tamarind, hot chillies, sweet jaggery, salt and white lilac flowers. She crushes them into a paste.
?Meanwhile, we clean the entire house,? adds Koshika, their shy 12-year old daughter. As the sun rises, the whole family prays and offers the Ugadi Pacchadi to the gods. They then share the remaining paste, which symbolizes the acceptance of life?s joys and sorrows, with family and neighbours. ?We also place mango leaves and flowers tied on a string called toranalu at the threshold of the main door to protect us against evil spirits,? says Mikrish, their 17 year-old son.
Uma and Koshika decorate the floor with muggoo (colourful designs made with powder). Then, they go to the Vishnu Mandiran at Saint- Pierre for a special prayer. ?We will pay homage to Pandit Gunnaya Ottoo, thanks to whom Ugadi is nationally recognized.?
Then it?s back home for a vegetarian meal before joining in the cultural events organised around the country.
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