Festivals, Rituals, and Food during Pandemic

Bangalore is most commonly known as India’s IT capital, but it is also said to have over 1000 temples and places of worship. They have been constructed over the generations by various ruling dynasties dating from the Cholas in the 10th century.

While there are sanctuaries that have many important histories, there too are a group of synagogues that are contemporary. Not only places of worship, but there are also varieties of shrines, pious places, churches, mosques, and religious practices that are in some ways different from others. Although Bangalore has developed into a commercial hub, we should not overlook its rich cultural legacy.

ON FOOD AND WORSHIP:

The Corona Virus Pandemic has put all of us through a severe downfall regarding our professions, education, and other priorities, and it all came to a standstill, affecting several lives out there. Festivals and Rituals have been around since the beginning of time, and our mythologies have reiterated the significance of this. As they shut temples, it left a lot of rituals without being carried out, and it affected many people, as for some giving and receiving offerings was associated with their spirituality and worshipping attributes.

ON FOOD AND DEATH RITUALS:

Death rituals are a direct reflection of a status symbol for any family belonging to a community, and it is not an overnight task, rather a planned and executed ritual with feasts, prayer offerings, and other yatras. In a country like India, there is diversity in even the most remote areas and that is both convincing and pressing.

It is convincing as for the exchange of ideas and knowledge proliferation where people learn about other cultures and cohabit in an informed manner.

The idea of it being something that is urging is because of the constant judgments that people exhibit when something is not executed in an orderly fashion as a disrespect to the dead. A lot of us have lost our loved ones during this pandemic, and we wouldn’t have had the provision and resources we needed to glorify those who have passed on with the food offerings and rituals we usually did until the pandemic.