Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan (the bond of protection in Hindi) is a Hindu festival, which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or a holy thread by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The elder brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her, as does the elder sister who offers to look after her younger brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed each other sweets. It is not necessary that the rakhi can be given only to a birth brother. Any male can be “adopted” as a brother by tying a rakhi whether it is “blood brothers and sisters”, whether they are cousins or just good friends. It is celebrated on the full moon of the month of Shraavana. Shraavana in the Hindu calendar is the tenth month of the year beginning on 2nd August and ending on 30th August.

In My Family

In my family my two sisters and two of my brothers very good friends tie the rakhi on my arm. On this day they give me sweets and in exchange I give them a gift. You can give them different gifts but I usually chip in to what my brother gives, this year it was a sari. On this day people normally go out to dinner or to a party, but we had a tremendous dinner at home made by my mum. In India we used to celebrate this festival in a similar way. For me the highlight of the day was always the nice food. My family celebrates Raksha Bandhan in pretty much the same way. The only difference is that we went to bigger parties in India and we had a lot more sweets.

by Harsh Shah