By: Anupama Rao
One of India’s most famous festivals is Ganesh Chaturthi. Today, we will learn more about the birthday of the beloved Hindu God, Lord Ganesha by going through some basic information.
What and When is Ganesh Chaturthi?
Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated on the fourth day of the Hindu calendar month of Bhadrapada (pronounced: Bhaadrapada) which is usually around August and September. This year, the holiday falls on August 22. Usually, Hindus bring home an idol of Lord Ganesha/Ganapati, the God of New Beginning and Remover of Obstacles. Spanning over eleven days, the Vinayaka Chaturthi is celebrated with much pomp and joy, especially in the western state of Maharashtra where it is the biggest festival every year. It is also celebrated in the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha. At the end of the 11 days, the idol of Lord Ganesha is immersed into a body of water — lakes or ponds for huge idols that are displayed at various Pandals or stalls, or a tub of water for small or metal idols. This is called Visarjan, meaning “letting go.” Until 2020, Ganesh Utsav and Visarjan in Mumbai were celebrated as grandly as New Years in Time Square, but the COVID-19 situation has made it more difficult for residents to go “Pandal hopping,” visiting as many idols in the city of Mumbai as possible. Though the Ganesha idol is commonly kept at one’s house for 11 days, some may choose to “let go” of the Lord after 1.5, 3, 5, or 7 days. Visarjan is a more somber stage as each day that Bappa was at their home, there would be instead a more joyous atmosphere. Though letting go is hard, Lord Ganesha is sent away to his house in Mount Kailash only after a deal is made of coming back next year. Why is Ganesh Chaturthi celebrated and its Significance? The story behind Ganesh Chaturthi is that the Elephant God was on his way back home in Mount Kailash after his big birthday feast when the Moon God, Chandra, laughed at him when his “stomach broke” and he tied a snake around it like a belt. This incident infuriated Lord Ganesha and he cursed Chandra. As a result, he loses his beauty for half the lunar month (the phases of the moon). It is also considered inauspicious to see the moon on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi, i.e., Bhadrapada Shukla Chauti or the fourth day of the waning phase of the lunar month. The repercussions of viewing the moon on this day can be wrongful allegations/accusations. However, there is a way to get rid of this curse if you accidentally happen to see the moon on that day. The story of the Shyamantaka Jewel is the cure and also explains how seeing the moon on the specific day affected Lord Krishna.
How is Ganesh Chaturthi celebrated?
The day before Ganesh Chaturthi, his mother, Goddess Parvati is invited to Earth from her heavenly abode on Mount Kailash. Women (except widows) install an idol of Gauri, either a statue and/or a small figure made out of turmeric and milk, and worship it. Those doing this pooja/vrata also tie a thread soaked in turmeric around their right hand, symbolizing that she is a Sumangali (lit. fortunate woman) or an unmarried or married woman. In Karnataka, we also have a tradition of exchanging baagina, a pair of bamboo winnowing fans that contain grains, fruits, dry fruits, ornaments such as bangles, mirrors, and combs. It also has fruits, kumkum or vermillion, betel leaf and nut, coconut, and money. For unmarried women or kumaris, the grains are omitted. On Ganesh Chaturthi, Modaks (sweet dumplings) and Chickpeas are made as offering to Lord Ganesha as they are his favorite food. Usually, the men of the house bring in the idol of Lord Ganesha since the women have already installed his mother, Gauri/Parvati, in the house already. Once installed, the idol should not be moved until the Visarjan. This is because the ritual of installation includes Prana Pratishtapana which is like giving a soul to the empty idol. If moved before the time of immersion, the soul leaves the idol and it does not have any meaning left to be worshipped. Although COVID-19 has restricted the display of humongous statues of Lord Ganesha in Mumbai, the belief of people has remained resilient in Ganesha. Despite the restrictions, it has not stopped them from celebrating the occasion to the fullest in the safety of their homes. I wish all the readers a happy and prosperous Ganesh Chaturthi (even if you don’t celebrate it or believe in him), and may Lord Ganesha’s blessings always be with humankind! Anupama Rao (she/her) is a high school senior from Bengaluru, India. She loves reading, writing, listening to music, and cooking. She has had the opportunity to live in three different countries, and she loves traveling and learning languages through culture.
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By: Israa Jahan COVID-19 has affected industries all around the world, putting jobs and the fate of employees in a precarious position. One of the hardest hit industries has been the garment sector because consumers are not spending nearly as much on clothes, and as a result, companies are cancelling their clothing orders. Bangladesh’s economy, in particular, relies heavily on the garments industry: about 80% of the country’s exports comes from garments. So, when these companies cancel their orders, the Bangladeshi economy is hit hard. From the surface level, late cancellations cause the factories to lose revenue from these orders. What remains unnoticed is that these Bangladeshi factories have to pay their employees and buy materials before they are even paid by the retailers and brands. This means that every time an order is cancelled, the factories are not only losing the potential revenue from that order, but also the money that they have invested into it. This is, at its core, an ethics issue, an issue that gained recognition in 2013 after the collapse of one of the largest garments’ factories in Bangladesh: the Rana Plaza in Dhaka. A total of 1134 workers were killed and 2600 were injured and left disabled. The US and the EU, Bangladesh garments’ largest customers, demanded that factories are more strictly inspected and labor rights are improved. They even paid workers’ compensation for injuries and families of the victims during this time. Now after $3.5 billion worth of clothing orders have been cancelled from Bangladeshi factories, these same US and EU companies that paid these compensations before are silent. Currently, Bangladeshi garment workers have been protesting for their fair share of wages from their factories of employment because many of these workers have not been paid for their work for months, since March 2020. Although Bangladesh requires severance payments from employers, many do not follow this law and furthermore, there are almost no unemployment benefits insured by the government. These workers were already earning just enough money to get by, about 8000 takas ($95) monthly, and are mostly women who use every bit of this small salary to help their entire family. The Bangladeshi government has announced that they will sue those factory owners that have not paid their employees during the pandemic; however, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) say that many of these factory owners cannot afford to pay their employees because so many of the large name brands and retailers are refusing to pay for their order. Unfortunately, there is no law in Bangladesh that these factories can use to force the brands to pay for their previous orders either. The government under PM Sheikh Hasina has announced about $8.5 billion as a stimulus during the pandemic, and some of this will be allocated to factory owners to borrow and pay their workers’ salaries. But these factory owners will at one point have to pay back their debt, and it is uncertain where this money will come from. The BGMEA uses the reasoning that after a while, when there is somewhat of a semblance to normalcy, people will start to buy clothes again, but at that time all of these factories will be closed and unable to take any orders. It is in the brands’ and retailers’ best interest to keep these factories open and uphold the human rights’ reputations that they have established after Rana Plaza. It is true that with the pandemic, retail sales all around the world have gone down, with the US specifically down by 8.7%. From the brands’ and retailers’ point of view, they are also continually losing money from these dropped sale numbers and having to lay off workers and close stores. Of course, at the time of the Rana Plaza accident, these brands were in much better financial shape than now and it was much easier for them to pay injury compensations to garment workers. Now, for retailers, such as JCPenney, which declared bankruptcy in mid-May due to the pandemic, it is difficult to choose between paying their own employees and the garments workers. However, for brands and retailers that have a surplus of profits from the year before and are more financially capable, which covers a majority of these companies, it should not be difficult for them to at least pay for the orders that they have placed and those in production (such as Walmart and Adidas). This is not an outrageous expectation from the companies because it is their responsibility to pay for the orders that they have already placed. This issue has caused people from all around the world to speak up, most notably on Instagram using the hashtag #payup to demand companies to pay in full for both their previous orders and those that are in production. This hashtag initially gained popularity after the Rana Plaza accident and was used to demand retailers and brands to pay full injury compensation for vulnerable garments’ workers. Adidas, Target, Gap Inc., and Nike are among the companies who have pledged to pay for their orders or have been pressured to, while Urban Outfitters, Walmart (Asda), and JCPenney are among those companies who have not agreed to pay fully for their orders completed or in production. For a more complete list, please take a look at the links below. These garments’ workers need all of us to speak out, so that they don’t have to worry about feeding themselves and their families on top of the pandemic. To help this cause, please use and participate in the #payup movement, sign the petitions that demand brands to pay up using the links listed below, and raise more awareness about this issue. https://www.workersrights.org/issues/covid-19/tracker/ https://www.supportgarmentworkers.org/payup-fashion. Israa Jahan (she/her) is a sophomore at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, studying Microbiology. In the future, she plans on joining the medical field to become a physician but takes a liking to culture, history, religion, and language. She is a Bangladeshi American and enjoys learning about her own culture as well as that of others. She loves spending time with family and friends and reading her favorite series, Harry Potter. By: Sanjith Prabhu The Washington Redskins are a franchise in the National Football League (NFL). The team resides near the Washington DC area at FedEx Field, in Maryland. This is because the then-owner of the team in the late 1980s wanted a larger stadium after moving out of Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) stadium in DC, the former home stadium for the team.
The team name though, has been controversial for many decades. Only a few have thought of the need to change the team name, as they believe that it is oppressive and racist towards Native Americans. In light of the recent death of George Floyd, more have inclined towards changing the name of the team in the Black Lives Matter movement. The Atlanta Braves, Chicago Blackhawks, Kansas City Chiefs, and Cleveland Indians are also major sports teams facing some pressure in this movement about their team name, though it is not nearly as intense as the Redskins. Based on this, some of the major Washington Redskins’ sponsors have threatened to withdraw from their contributions to the franchise. Specifically, FedEx to possibly change the name of the stadium, Nike and other retailers to remove Redskins fan gear, stockholders to not invest in the team, and the franchise to not be able to move back to RFK stadium, which the current owner Dan Snyder has openly said he wants to do. The team was then virtually forced to change the name, which is quite ironic because in 2013, when some controversy arose about the name, Dan Snyder had said in an interview with USA Today, "We'll never change the name, It's that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.” This did not hold true as the franchise recently made it official that they changed their name to ‘The Washington Football Team’, even though it is a temporary placeholder. Across a plethora of surveys and polls in the early to mid 2010s over the controversy on the franchise’s name, there is a pattern that more people are leaning towards the opinion that the name is disrespectful and needs to be changed. In fact, the percentage of people surveyed in 1992 and 2014, respectively, who thought the name was oppressive had gained 15 percent, not to mention from 2013-2014 it had increased by a whopping 9 percent. This was due to the aforementioned 2013 controversy, when the then-mayor of Washington DC, Vincent Gray had explained that he would like a name change. This started a domino effect as later that year many events happened to help make change. Congress members asked the NFL and the team for a name change. Then, news writers did not want to use the team name in their articles. The Oneida Native American tribe spoke out about this as did the president. This swayed some to agree with this take on the team name. This increasing trend in the mid 2010s certainly should not be discounted, even though the Black Lives Matter movement had impacted the amount of people in favor of this viewpoint. However, a seven month study by Smithsonian Researcher Ives Goddard tells differently. Goddard’s study shows that Redskin was a common term first used in 1769 for Native Americans to refer to themselves. In the 19th century, the word was used routinely and freely by others as well to refer to them. Fast forward to 1933, when the then Boston Braves owner, named George Preston Marshall, had changed the team name to Redskins to avoid confusion with the Boston Braves baseball team. It is to be noted that the Redskins had 6 Native Americans on their active roster as well as their Native American head coach, William Henry “Lone Star” Deitz. From this, it can easily be interpreted that the naming of this team was not directed to be oppressive. Although there is still controversy remaining about this team name, there is no clear evidence yet to support whether it was intended as oppressive and racist towards Native Americans or not. As of right now, it still remains to be seen what the team plans to change their name in the long term as again the ‘Washington Football Team’ name is temporary. Sanjith Prabhu (he/him) is a freshman at New Trier Township High School in Illinois. He loves STEM and quantitative challenges, as well as strategic thinking such as football analysis and chess. He is excited to participate in Culture Talk and learn about various cultures across the globe, sharing interesting elements that he discovers along the way. |
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