Garuda Panchami
Submitted by aarushik on Wed, 2010-08-11 14:40 My GalleryI recently wrote about Naga Panchami, and also wanted to write about Garuda Panchami, since it falls on the same day - August 14 of this year! Garuda Panchami is dedicated to the worship of Garuda, the vaahanam, or vehicle, of Lord Vishnu. It celebrates Garuda’s devotion to his mother Vinathai, and as such, it also celebrates the devotion and love between mothers and their children. On this day, mothers pray for the well-being of their children, and aspire for their children to emulate Lord Garuda in his noble qualities. I happened to come across some of the comments on my Naga Panchami post, and I found it interesting that Garuda Panchami could also be observed between brothers and sisters! According to the tradition, when the brother would leave his sister at her in-laws’ home and return to the snake-infested fields, the sister would seek Nagadevata’s assistance in protecting her brother.