Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 29: Bhai Dooj – the Hindu festival signifying eternal love between brothers and sisters – was celebrated across Jammu province with fervor and gaiety.
A special programme was organized at Bal Niketan orphanage at Amphalla where the girl children applies tilak on the forehead of the boys. Gifts were distributed among the inmates of the orphanage. “We don’t have a family, but all of us live here like brothers and sisters. This day is very important to us as we organize several cultural activities to mark the occasion,” said Manisha, one of the inmates of Bal Niketan.
The festival was also celebrated at Old Age Home, Amphalla, wherein elderly women prepared tilak material with saffron and vermilion and adorned the forehead of elderly men of the Old Age Home with tilak. They offered them sweets and prayed for their good health and long life. In return, the men presented gifts to women.
Bhai Dooj was also celebrated with great enthusiasm at SOS Children Home, Channi Himmat, Jammu. The girl children of the Home performed Aarti of the boys and applied tilak on their forehead in a special ceremony organized by the management of the Home. The boys presented gifts to girls and took oath of protecting them from any danger.
“This is a regular feature in SOS Home. Every year we celebrate this festival as it develops a feeling of love between the children and they come to know about real value-based Indian culture,” said AK Khajuria, president of the SOS Home.
The Festival is also known as the festival of Tikka. The celebrations of this day are similar to the festival of Raksha Bandhan. The whole ceremony signifies the duty of a brother to protect his sister while sisters pray for the long life of their brothers.
The inmates of Residential School for Blind, Roop Nagar also celebrated the festival with gaiety. The girls put tikka on the forehead of the boys, offered them sweets and prayed for their long life.
In Jammu city, there was a complete traffic mess with several jams giving tough time to traffic police personnel in clearing them, apparently due to the festival as people were rushing to their relatives and buying gifts or sweets for them. There was heavy rush of traffic on the city roads today as almost all married women were on their way to their maternal houses to celebrate the day with their brothers.
Bhai Dooj was also celebrated with great enthusiasm in other districts of Jammu province.
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