Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 607

SACRED TRUTHS IMPERISHABLE
567
life in which the good shall be rewarded and the
wicked punished.
What other conclusion can we draw from this than that
such sacred truths will never perish from off the earth ?
The atheist and the materialist may heap up sophistry on
sophistry in order to obscure these truths and conceal them
from the eyes of nations but their efforts are in vain.
Graven on the hearts of men in indelible characters by the
hand of the Almighty Himself, these truths must continue
another
;
to grow and to bear fruit so long as there are reasonable
creatures and civilized peoples in the world.
CHAPTER
— The
III
—
New- Year Feast. The Feast of the Household
Gods. Commemoration of the Dead. Feast of the Schools.
Feasts in Honour of Serpents.
Military Feasts.
The Feast of
Lamps. Sacrifices to Plants. The Feast of the Lingayats. The
Hindu
Feasts.
—
—
—
Pongul Ceremonies.
—
—
—
— General Remarks.
—
Each district and each temple of the least importance
has its own particular feasts, recurring at intervals during
and besides these local feasts
the course of the year
there are many others that are generally observed every-
where, taking place at fixed periods. Feast-days are given
up to rejoicings and diversions of all kinds work is entirely
suspended relatives and friends meet together and feast
each other in turn the houses are decorated, the best
jewels and apparel are worn, and the time is spent in
games, which for the most part are very artless and inno-
Family feasts, however, have not the smallest re-
cent.
semblance to those celebrated in temples, to which the
people flock from every side, and which often give rise to
the most scandalous scenes.
There are in all eighteen obligatory Hindu feasts in the
First,
year, but I will mention only the principal ones.
there is the feast which is celebrated on the first day of the
year, called Ugadi i and which falls on the day of the
new moon in the month of March. On this occasion Hindus
are expected to pay each other visits of ceremony. The
feast lasts for three days, during which they give themselves
;
;
;
;
,
1
This
is
the
name given
to the Telugu
New
Year's Day.
Ed.