hindi festival where sisters give bracelets to brothers
Raksha Bandhan Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan,[1] or simply Rakhi, is an annual rite performed in the Indian subcontinent, or by people originating from the Indian subcontinent, and centred around the tying of a thread, talisman, or amulet on the wrist as a form of ritual protection. The protection is offered principally by sisters to brothers, but also by priests to patrons, and sometimes by individuals to real or potential benefactors. Differing versions of the rite have been traditionally performed by Hindus in northern India,[2][3][4] western India,[5] Nepal,[6] and former colonies of the British Empire to which Hindus had emigrated from India in the 19th-century, and have included, in addition, rites with names rendered as Saluno,[7][8] Silono,[9] and Rakri.[10] The rituals associated with these rites, however, have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration,[11] the movies,[12] social interaction,[13] and promotion by politicized Hinduism,[14][15] as well as by the nation state.[16]
Ganesh Chaturthi It is unclear when the festival started, it may have South Indian origins, but historical evidence suggests it became a major social and public event with sponsorship of Shivaji after Mughal-Maratha wars, and again in the 19th century after public appeal by Indian freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak,[13] who championed it as a means to circumvent the colonial British government ban on Hindu gatherings through its anti-public assembly legislation in 1892.[14][15][8]