The entire world celebrates 14th Feb as Valentine’s Day. This is supposedly celebrated after St. Valentine who was executed for his support to love. When referred to wikipedia there are no concrete and real proof’s of this case though. We are not going to spend time on discussing this though.

Vasant Panchami on the other hand is a very old traditional Indian festival. This marks the start of Spring season, which is called Vasant (or Basant) Ritu in India. This is the celebration of blossoming flowers and invigorating nature. Nature gets back to its vitality after the hibernation period of Hemant ritu (Cold season). Vasant Panchami also marks the beginning of the season of love. Love flourishes in freshness, beauty and flowers. Vasant Panchami is a symbol of all of them. Refering back to wikipedia abstract again it mentions, The god Kamdev (God of Love) is worshipped on this day.

Interestingly unlike lot of western culture, love has been always cherished and celebrated in this part of the world. Vasant ritu also marks the beginning of famous Holi,which is the festival of colors in India. There are pockets in India where Vasant Panchami is considered as the first day of the 40 day long Holi celebration or color celebration.

The extracts of Chandan, Kesar, Marigold,Rose and various other similar flowers are used to color each other and spread the happiness and joy of being in harmony with nature.

The day is also considered very auspicious for engagements and marriages. With a lot of marriages still following traditional rituals and are based on the astrological matches (Kundali’s) and need to be perfomed on specific dates/days, this day is considered very auspicious for performing marriages.

Unfortunately, with poor marketing we are not able to promote Vasant Panchami as Indian Valentine Day (atleast in India). Why can’t we celebrate this great festival of love, freshness and color as our own Valentine day as against the one on 14th Feb which incidently does not really even seem to have a strong basis (again I might be completely wrong and this is in no way to offend any sentiments from any section).

Might be a good food for thought ? Happy Indian Valentine to All !