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 Govardhan
or Bali Pratipada
The Fourth day is of Diwali festival Padwa or Govardhan or
Bali Pratipada also known as Varshapratipada which marks the
coronation of King Vikramaditya and Vikaram-Samvat (Hindu
Calendar) was started from this Padwa day.
Govardhan Pooja is also performed in the
North on this day. As the legend goes the people of Gokul
used to celebrate a festival in honor of Lord Indra and
worshipped him after the end of every monsoon season but one
particular year the young Krishna stopped them from offering
prayers to Lord Indra who in terrific anger sent a deluge to
submerge Gokul. But Krishna saved his Gokul by lifting up
the Govardhan mountain and holding it over the people as an
umbrella.
Govardhan is a small hillock in Braj, near
Mathura and on this day of Pratipada people of Punjab,
Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar build cowdung, hillocks,
decorate them with flowers and then worship them.
This day is also observed as Annakoot
meaning mountain of food. Pious people keep awake the whole
night and cook fifty-six or 108 different types of food for
the bhog (the offering of food) to Krishna. In temples
specially in Mathura and Nathadwara, the deities are given
milkbath, dressed in shining attires with ornaments of
dazzling diamonds, pearls, rubies and other precious stones.
After the prayers and traditional worship innumerable
varieties of delicious sweets are ceremoniously raised in
the form of a mountain before the deities as "Bhog" and then
the devotees approach the Mountain of Food and take Prasad
from it.
Gudi Padwa is symbolic of love and devotion
between the wife and husband. On this day newly-married
daughters with their husbands are invited for special meals
and given presents. In olden days brothers went to fetch
their sisters from their in-laws home for this important
day.
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