The festival to strengthen married life- KAARADAYAAN NONBU

KAARADAYAAN NONBU- THE FESTIVAL TO STRENGTHEN MARRIED LIFE
It is very interesting to see women purchasing colorful flowers, mango leaves, banana stems, rice, jaggery and other things for the important festival at the month of mid March in South India. This is the sacred ‘’KAAR ADAYAN NONBU’’. The festival which has been named with a delicious south Indian dish.

KAAL ANAI ADAYAN – The root name of the festival is kaalanai adayan, meaning ‘’ a person who never reach the foot of death’’.
Legend: The great princess Savithri got married to Sathyavan. He was a great Wiseman. They lived a very perfect married life as per directed by Sanadhana dharma of India. But he has been cursed in the previous birth that he will die soon. But they lived a very fearless life just by surrendering to God.
Days passed away. It was a dawn, Lord Yama alas Kaalan came to take Sathyavan’s life. He too did not scare and surrendered to him and accepted the reality of life. But Savithri just performed special poojas and surrendered to Mother Goddess and seeked her abode to save her husband.
Goddess also blessed her the real knowledge of questioning and started conversing with Yama and she has started questioning him and all those were about the philosophy of married life and how to take that into spirituality. In one context she requests him to bless her father- in- law with vision and power. Next she asks for many children and he too blesses her and left with Sathiyavan’s spirit. But she became very aware and asks him ‘’how I can have many children when you take away my husband?’’
This makes Yama to think a lot and also made him to bless her with her husband.
So finally the awareness of the wife saved the husband and family life. We can also interpret that the death of the husband is the unhealthiness of the couple’s relation which breaks the married live through divorse. It is the role of every woman to strengthen the relation with the husband just by shedding the self ego and with the true love she can save her family life. Savithry request the death to give back her husband to give birth to children. Let the women and men of present world realize the essence of having good children and think about any unhealthy situation in life which makes them to break soon by which their children will be the real victims.
How to do the rituals?
1. Husband and wife can fast from previous day night or on the festival day till they finish the rituals.
2. Clean the home and decorate the home with traditional things.
3. The ritual altar can be lighted with 5 wicks lamp.
4. Place the metal pot with full of rice or water and close with mango leaves and coconut. Any fruit can be the lid in place of the coconut. This is called ‘’KALASAM’’.
5. Prepare the sacred cotton treads smeared with turmeric paste and tie few flowers to it and put them over the kalasam.
6. Consider the kalasam as Goddess Kamakshi Devi. [Presiding Goddess of Kanchipuram city in South India. She is the incarnation of mother Goddess who is believed to be the Goddess of happy family life.]
7. Chant Lalitha sahasranamam to Goddess and also perform archana [offering flowers for each name]. Rice mixed with turmeric powder can be used in place of flowers.
8. Finally try to read the story of Savithry. Better think and meditate about your married life and try to forget each other’s mistakes and accept as you are. This is the self evaluation.
9. Offer the sacred food to Goddess and light camphor and pray for healthy family life and world peace. Let the husband tie the sacred thread in the right hand wrist of his wife and feed poor people.
Importance of the festival:
Kamakshi married Shiva and he said that she has to perform 36 types of service to man kind from the family life. She too accepted. Try to plan and do at least one such good service to any one according to your time, finance and family setup.
Accepting each other is the point of surrendering to Supreme spirit and starting the journey towards the spirituality.
Main naivedhyam:
Adai. This is the very special sacred dish offered to the Goddess on this day. It is believed that Savithry prepared this dish in the forest and offered to Kamakshi to attain wisdom.
1. Sweet adai: This denotes the happiness of family life.

a. Half kilogram rice.
b. Any cereal 100 grams.
c. Half kilogram of jaggery.
d. Coconut scrapings one cup.
e. Cardamoms.

Preparation: Soak the rice, dry it and powder it. Roast the rice powder to reddish color. Roast the cereals also. Boil the rice and cereals add coconut scrapings.
Purify the jaggery and add to the boiled rice and stir the mixture. The dough will be well cooked and remove from the flame. Now take a hand full of dough and make into small cakes on banana leaf and steam cook it.


2. Salt adai: This is the symbol of bitterness situations of family life.

Prepare the rice dough as said for sweet adai. Best time to celebrate – afternoon 12 to 1 P.M.
a.
b. Ginger, green chillies, cereals 100 grams, mustard seeds, coconut scarpings 1 cup, Ulundhu dhal, salt.
Preparation:
Just follow all the process with the rice dough as said in previous preparation. Fry all the other ingredients and add to the cooked dough and mix properly and make as cakes and steam cook it.
Festival falls on 14.3.09.