Today we celebrated our festival of Mahashivarathri.It literally means Great night of Shiva”.It is believed that lord shiva appeared in the form of Linga in the night and hence we do Jagran on shivarathri.There are few stories which my mother and grandmother narrated to me.I roughly remember those stories and today I narrated to my child.
How we celebrated Maha shivarathri
1.Diy Shiva Lingam
We used clay to do Shiva Lingam for our Pooja.The child with lots of patience tried to knead the clay.I helped him to get the consistency.Then he finally made to get a form of Lingam.After it dried,he painted it with black fevicryl colour.Then applied vibuthi and Kumkum.He decorated it with flowers and Bilva leaves.We did Pooja with our Shiva Lingam on this Mahashivarathri.Last time,we did shiva lingam using water bottle for Thiruvadirai festival ,so we thought to do with clay for Shivarathri
He has uttered several times om namaha shivaya continuously while doing shiva lingam and was very much involved during the entire process.
2.Ice Lingam
This was my child’s own idea.He poured water in a glass and kept in freezer at high cooling.After he came home from play,he inverted it and our beautiful ice shiva linga is ready.
3.Green Moong dhal Shiva lingam
In the morning,I saw the post of Revathi Saravankumar ,art using grains.So I thought to try doing with my child .I drew the outine of shiva in a card board.Asked the child to apply glue inside the outline.He filled with green moong dal and he wanted to add our colourful chickpeas to the art.I gave him rice flour to sprinkle three lines as Vibhuthi .Our another version of colourful shiva lingam is ready.
4.Shlokas
We recited several slokas and songs for Lord Shiva.Then we uttered many times Om namaha Shivaya.We offered Bilva leaves and flowers to our shiva Lingam and celebrated the festival.We also learnt that Shiva has 108 different names.
5.Stories for Mahashivarathri.
I explained to my child why we celebrate Shivarathri,reason for staying awake in the night during Shivarathri,speciality of Bilva leaves and why we donot use Ketaki flower on Pooja.Through this story,I highlighted about importance of talking the truth at all times and many more.
The following stories were shared with my child for this mahashivarathri:
a.Why we celebrate Mahashivaratri festival
Once upon a time Devas and Asuras decided to extract Amruth from sea.Amruth had the ability to make any one live forever. Mount Meru was selected to be the churner and Lord Shiva’s Snake – Vasuki was to be the rope used to churn.During the process,Shiva’s snake poured large quantity of poison which was danger to the entire world.Everybody got scared and they went to Shiva for help.
Shiva drank the poison to save the entire world but Parvati held Lord Shiva’s neck, so that the poison would not be swallowed and Lord Vishnu held his mouth closed to make sure that the poison does not spill out.They stayed this way for the whole night. The poison stayed in Lord Shiva’s neck and therefore it turned blue. This gave Lord Shiva the name ‘Neelkanth’. Inorder to pay respect to Lord Shiva,we celebrate Mahashivaratri.
b.Bilwa leaves for the festival
There was a good man who once went to the forest to collect wood. He went too far into the forest and lost his way. It became night and he got scared.To save him from animals,he climbed a tree. He started feeling sleepy,so he started picking the leaves of the tree one by one and started dropping them with Lord Shiva on his mind. Thus, he spent the night safely.In the morning, he realised that the tree he had climbed was a Bilwa tree and below it was a Shiva Linga. Then to say thank you to Lord Shiva,he did pooja with Bilva leaves one by one.Lord Shiva felt very happy by seeing his sincerity and devotion.Shiva blessed him with good health and wealth and forgived all his mistakes.Thus ,every Shivarathri we do pooja with Bilva leaves for shiva with full sincerity and Shiva will forgive our mistakes which was done knowingly and unknowingly.
c.Why we do not use Ketaki Flower
One day Brahma and Vishnu were fighting with each other to know who is powerful.In order to make them realise their mistake that fighting is not good habit,Shiva told them to find the end of beam of light.Whoever finds the light is winner and declared to be powerful. Vishnu was honest and told shiva the truth that he couldnot find the light.But Brahma met ketaki flower and both of them lied regarding finding of light.So Shiva got angry on ketki flower and Brahma for telling lie.So we donot worship Shiva with ketaki flower.
Wish you all very happy Mahashivaratri:)
REBORN FOR MY LITTLE HERO 