Significance Of Akshaya Trirtiya Festival In Rajasthan, India
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Yesterday was a very auspicious day for Hindus & Jains of India. Every year, this day (third day of the brighter fortnight of the Vaishakh Month in lunar calendar) is celebrated as Akshaya Tritiya (shortened as Akkha Teej in Rajasthan) in India. This day is considered as the most auspicious, fortunate and sacred for all important decisions and activities. According to mythological scriptures, all good work done on this day will bring in eternal (i.e. akshaya) rewards forever.
As this festival testifies this date to bring in good luck and fortune for all activities, no astrological consultation is needed to initiate any new beginnings. Thus many big projects are inaugurated on this day, properties and gold are purchased, house warming ceremonies, wedding functions and inaugural functions for new business openings too are held on this day.
Varshi Tapa In Jains
In Jainism, this day commemorates the breaking of a one year long fast by their first Tirthankar with the sugarcane juice. So many followers follow an alternate day fast continuously for one year and then collectively break their fast on this day. So it becomes a big event when several people gathers to break their one year fasting and others who help them break their fast. This is considered very auspicious and a sacred act and is a very important event in Jainism.
Child Marriages
Rajasthan is infamous for child marriages. Despite it was held illegal several years back, a number of child marriages happen on this day in rural Rajasthan. Every year, Government run special campaigns and makes special efforts to stop child marriages on this festival. But people are adamant to organize child marriages to make the best of this auspicious festival and they even administer growth hormones like Oxytocins to brides to make them look older and thus deceive the authorities. Calling it a “heinous social practice”, Ministry of Women & Child Development issued a directive to several State authorities a week before this day. Despite of continued Government efforts, there is an increase in the no. of cases registered for child marriages. Every year, about 1.5 million under-aged girls are married off in India (according to UNICEF data).
Investment In Gold
Buying gold is a popular investment on this day which many families do it ritually. Mostly, people love to buy gold jewelries on this day as they get the dual benefit of jewelry as well as appreciation in investment.
This year, on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, the government also issued Sovereign Bond 2018-2019-Series-1 scheme. Sovereign Gold Bonds are issued by the RBI (Indian central bank) on behalf of the Government of India. Capital gains on SGB are tax free and these also earn an interest of 2% p.a. apart from the appreciation in price of gold.
Another option to buy gold is to buy Gold ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) and collect gold units in your demat account.
But this year, this festival was said to be falling on some unique astrological position which occurred first time in 500 years. And due to the planetary position (esp. of the Shani / Saturn), people were advised against buying gold and to buy silver instead.
So there wasn’t much interest in buying gold yesterday. Aside astrological advice, returns from gold in the past 3-5years have not been very encouraging. No surprises that gold prices remain flat yesterday. Gold prices went up by only Rs. 30 to Rs. 32,380 per 10g at the bullion market in Delhi. This too can be explained by the ritual of token buying by jewelers on this day and demand of jewelry owing to numerous marriage functions on this festival. But there wasn’t any significant movement in the gold price.
But financial experts advise a small allocation towards gold as a hedge towards volatility and uncertainty.
The overall trend in gold prices is possibly set towards an upward bias, said Dinesh Rohira, Founder & CEO, 5nance.com
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Isn’t that more than a cherry on the cake? Happy Akkha Teej to you! 😊
It is very curious how the Rajasthan festival is celebrated in India, and that people have a day to bless the new projects. The only thing I do not understand is why they make marriage with girls, and why the authorities have not managed to control that practice. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading with such an interest and curiosity!
Child marriage is a very old ritual here when parents fix marriages for their children at a very early age ...sometimes even before they are born. This being an auspicious day, thousands of weddings takes place including adults as well as children.
The Act "prohibiting" child marriage was passed only in 2006 ande came into effect as late as 2007 though campaigns to curb this ritual were being undertaken for long time. Results too are showing up but it will take some more effort & work in tribal regions through awareness, education and creating employment options for girls there.
By the way, if you note the stats for child marriages around the world, you won't find India in top-20 by the rate of child marriages but if you see only the absolute numbers., India is at the top of the chart ...blame the huge population here!
Ok, I'm sure if you insist with a good advertising campaign against that practice, little by little it will disappear. God want Greetings, a pleasure!
I dont like this india fastivals
And what's the reason for your disliking?
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