Today is the auspicious day of Srikrishna Janmashtami, a hindu festival celebrating the birth of lord Krishna. This is my favourite festival among all hindu festivals. Here is how we celebrate it.
Few people keep a fast (without food and water) on this day. But at my home, we used to eat a light fasting lunch. The main celebrations start in the night. At our native, this pooja is performed only in few houses and in temples. Men gather at a place to do the pooja.
The poojari (called as ‘bhatmam’ in Konkani) goes to these places and lends them small saligram and a statue of Bala-Krishna (child krishna, The statue looks similar to the above picture). Bhatmam does the initial pooja to both saligram and statue and prepares the ‘Panchamrit/panchamritam’, offering prepared by mixing ‘panch’ – 5, amrit – immortal nectar. The main ingredients here are milk, sugar, yogurt(curd), honey and jaggery (molasses).
Then the men at home/temple carry on with the remaining procedures. They decorate god with lotus and other flowers. Then one of the men take the lead and read 1000 names of lord Krishna (Vishnu sahasranama), others follow him, with each name, men offer one tulsi dala (two leaves connected together) to lord. After 500 names one pooja is performed and after all the names are chanted, a offering of food followed with the main pooja is performed. So at the end of the pooja, the small statue of krishna would be completely covered with tulsi leaves and it won’t be visible from outside. The whole procedure starts around 8 in the night and goes on for around 2 hours (depending on the speed with which men chant the names). Usually at the final pooja, the arrangement looks like this (picture was taken during Janmashtami 2005 at my native)
The offering to god on this occasion are very simple, but we make a variety of dishes. They include
– Cashewnut laddoos (these days these are replaced by sesame laddoos with few roasted cashewnuts)
– Layya pitto (Layyi or layya is a kind of unsalted popcorn. Layyi pitto is coarsely powdered popcorn. This powder is mixed well with coconut and jaggery, cardamom, ghee and offered to god)
– Rosa phovu (Poha soaked in coconut milk, jaggery and cardamom powder)
– Dhaya phovu (Poha soaked in curd/yogurt and sugar)
– Cucumber pieces or Taushe hulel
– GoDa panchkajjaya (Procedure is given below. GoD meaning jaggery in Konkani)
Following picture was taken during Janmashtami 2005. In the top vessel-layya pitto, left-sesame laddoos, bottom-panchakajjaya, right-cucumber pieces can be seen.
So when we were kids, we used to sit patiently and eat this ‘prasad/prasadam’. Mom would make a simple dinner of rice, daali thoy and we would be more than happy to eat dinner along with her pickles and taushe hulel.The next day of Janmashtami is also special. I would write more about it tomorrow.
Ingredients:
Dalia split (Hurikadale or putani) 1/2 cup
Fresh coconut (grated) 2 tbl spns
Molasses(black jaggery) 1 tbl spn
Cardamom powder 1/2 tea spn
Sesame seeds (til) 1 tea spn
Ghee 1 tea spn
Method:
Dry roast dalia splits(hurikadale) and coarsely powder them.
Wash sesame seeds and dry roast them (till they split open).
Mix molasses and coconut (by hand). Add the dalia powder, sesame seeds, cardamom and ghee to it and mix well.
The way u celebrate is different from how we celebrate in tamilnadu. We decorate our houses with’ Maavilai and thoranam'(leaves from mango and palm trees). We draw patterns of small feet from the entrance of the house to puja room. we make dishes like seedai and murrukku.
Glad that i knew ur procedures.
Hey i noticed that iam the 1st one to comment ……..happy in doing so
Forgot to mention shilpa .. thanks for adding me to ur bloggers list.. It was nice of u to do that . Iam really happy and encouraged ..
nice way of celebrating Srikrishna Janmashtami,shilpa, actually we celebrate it in a different way and on a different day, that is we follow the star birth of lord krishna.And our main ingrediant for this festival would be sedai both sweet and salted version..Thanks for sharing such an ethinic dish …waiting to read about the next day of Srikrishna Janmashtami too..
I can’t thank you enough!! I love “Panch kadaay” – I think that’s what we used to call it. Please tell me how to make “Dhaya phovu” or “Dahi Pohe” in Marathi.
Prema, I would love to read your way of celebrating janmashtami. Do write abt it when you celebrate it. You have a lovely blog, its my pleasure to link you :).
Sudha, please share your way too. Thanks for lovely comment.
Rajasi, for dahi pohe, wash the poha in water, then add yogurt/curd and sugar to it.Thanks for the Marathi name, I have added it to the post.
wow…this morning I was thinking about dahi poha. I used to have it every afternoon when I was younger. Infact I was gonna ask you the recipe for it!
Abt panchamrut……I was not fond of it…would run and hide when it was time for bhatmaam to distribute the same. My dad would keep an eye on me and ensure I had some…..ofcouse then the story goes …never to touch your head after having panchamrut or your hair will go white from the honey! Miss those dayz!
Shilpa, thanks for sharing a traditional Krishna Janmashtami recipe. I have had something similar at my friend’s house. She is from Mangalore. Her mom had made this.
Shilpa, one more request. Can you arrange/index you recipes in alphabetical order under each category, for easy access? Right now it’s listed according to the date I guess. It would make looking for recipes a lot easier.
Shilpa, Happy krishna Jayanthi to you! Nice way to celebrate the festival.
Shilpa
Wish you a happy krishnastami! Great narration.
Such a neat way to present. I missed all the celebrations at home. Especially all the festivals which started from Shravan. This is very nice to show the kids too, how the pooja is performed in native place.
Preeti, I will arrange the categories as you said. Thanks. Hey..please check the dahi poha comment again, I had done a mistake yesterday.
Krithika,lera,arjuna, thanks.
Aruna, I agree with you, even I had missed most of the festivals when I was in India due to studies or office work. But since this was my favourite festival, I could remember few things from childhood and the recipes are taken from mom.
Please keep me updated on the new recipes:)
Hi shilpa,
good blog.i just happened to come across this site today while browsing.
Keep it going.
Regards,
kiranmayi
shilpa,
Very good narration indeed.Keep it going.
Regards,
kiranmayi
Bangalore
Hi Shilpa,i really liked the pooja photo,the naivedya (is panchakajjaya same as pankadayi?) i have tasted the same one in Udupi temple! Tks a lot!!!
Shilpa: Yes, Purnima it is same. Pankadayi is a short form of panchkajjaya :).
hi shilpa! is the recipe of panchakadday that u have mentioned supposed to be dry?
i hve never tasted but being married into a GSB home i hve to make it. pls let me knw asap m plannin to make it tomo for ganesh chaturthi.
thanks.
Shilpa: Sunayana, it is not completely dry. The fresh grated coconut gives some moisture to it. But since there is no extra water added, it is not too wet also.