Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/81

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The Krittika feast is celebrated to commemorate the occasion of Siva’s having stood up as a fire-pillar on this day. What the Dipavali is to the Gujaratis in the Gujaratipet of Madras, so is Krittika to the other Hindus: A row of lights will be observed in front of every house on this night in the whole of Southern India. Children take to firing crackers. The non-Brahman population of Madras wear new cloths on this day. As Siva is supposed to have appeared in the form of a pillar of radiance on this day, in every place where there is a Siva temple a big rod some 25 or 30 feet high is planted opposite to the temple in an open space and left covered up with a thick coating of dried palm leaves from top to bottom. The whole work assumes the form of a leafy cylinder of about five feet in diameter. In the evening, after sun-set, the Siva god of the village or town is taken out of.the temple in procession. The procession stops before the cylinder. A brief ceremonial worship is performed and then lighted camphor is thrown at the foot of the cylinder. The whole work now blazes up and a great conflagration