{"id":5379,"date":"2014-07-29T17:42:10","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T17:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/?p=5379"},"modified":"2025-03-25T11:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T11:50:31","slug":"an-ode-to-agrarian-heritage-gamha-purnima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/an-ode-to-agrarian-heritage-gamha-purnima\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ode to Agrarian Heritage \u2013 Gamha Purnima"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The moon has its own significance in the Indian context; children call it <em>Chanda Mama<\/em>, while the elders rest important religious decisions on it. Its absence <em>(amavasya)<\/em> is attributed as a time of great power, the full moon (<em>purnima<\/em>) calls for festivities, while the fine crescent (new moon) marks another month. Countless festivals are celebrated as the moon transcends into different phases.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6946 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/gamha-purnima.jpg\" alt=\"gamha purnima\" width=\"1140\" height=\"579\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gamha Purnima is one such festival, that bases its celebration on the phase of the moon. This year it falls in on the 10<sup>th<\/sup> of August. The people of Odisha celebrate it with a lot of devotion. Coincidentally, it falls on the same day as Raksha Bandhan, the festival celebrating the brother-sister bond, \u00a0and is also similar to it in a few ways.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During Raksha Bandhan sisters tie a r<em>akhi<\/em> (sacred thread) on their brothers\u2019 wrist, in lieu of blessings, gifts and a promise that they\u2019ll protect them from all ills. While the Oriya people mark it as a day when they honour their cattle, bullocks, fields, wooden ploughs and <em>Gamha<\/em>. The <em>Gamha (<\/em>cow) holds\u00a0a sacred position\u00a0in Hinduism, it is a symbol of wealth and life, and is often referred as <em>Gomaata<\/em>(cow mother). This particular festival is perhaps the best realisation of the honour bestowed upon these sacred animals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other celebrations of this festival include preparing special sweets such as p<em>itha and <\/em>m<em>itha, <\/em>sharing them with friends and family, and playing Gamha Dian (The Gamha Jump). For this game, a temporary elevated tower setup is made with the help of grass, mud, bricks, stones, and bamboos. Fruits are tied on top, and whoever manages to jump and touch them gets a prize.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Agriculture provides for many of the needs of the common man and contributes greatly to\u00a0the Indian economy. It has a rich history and is the occupation of a majority of our population. Gamha Purnima is a great way of remembering our agricultural roots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The moon has its own significance in the Indian context; children call it Chanda Mama, while the elders rest important religious decisions on it. Its absence (amavasya) is attributed as a time of great power, the full moon (purnima) calls for festivities, while the fine crescent (new moon) marks another month. Countless festivals are celebrated&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/an-ode-to-agrarian-heritage-gamha-purnima\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":6312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[87],"tags":[5016,5017,5018,5019],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17738,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions\/17738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingholidays.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}