Janmastomi – Lord Krishna’s Birthday

Everywhere in India people celebrate this day. It is a bank holiday and especially in big cities there are parties held in the evening. People have a clay pot, filled with some special type of milk, coconut water and other things which has to be broken. They make a lot of music and dance, eat special dishes and celebrate until late in the night.

In the blind school they put up two long wooden posts in a distance of about 10 meters where they attached a rope on which they hung the clay pot. It was filled with coconut water and other liquids and flowers. Some of the bigger boys built a pyramid, 3 stories high, and the top boy broke the pot. It was light and thin and thus not very difficult to destroy. Some staff member trough coloured water on the students building the pyramid. They came down totally wet, but because having been successful, they were happy and with the music coming up they started dancing. Especially the boys were very keen and excited and I think they really enjoyed the time. Some people from a nearby village had brought speakers and drums and thus students, teachers and guests that had arrived were able to make nice and loud music. – Afterwards everybody met in the hall and had a nice, rich and special dinner, donated by some guests from Valsad.

Because the festival generally continues until late in the night, quite a few of the bigger students went to a nearby village to enjoy the time there with praying, singing and dancing.