Indian Blue Lotus Festival

An International event, the Blue Lotus Festival focuses on presenting the richness of Indian culture and music! The visitors coming to the festival discover the sounds of India at Pushkar, Rajasthan. The event takes place in February. The mission of an unprecedented international event – to present the richness of genres and styles of best of Indian music. In particular, Sufi, Folk, Traditional, Gypsy, Tribal, Devotional, Spiritual and Indigenous music from 13th to 18th February 2013. The festival in Pushkar, an ancient town of great cultural and historical importance is in Rajasthan, India.
According to Indian mythology, Pushkar has originated from the petal that fell from a blue lotus held by Lord Brahma – the creator of the universe. From the fourth century BC people have been visiting Pushkar for pilgrimage and some settled here transforming it into a town of unique spirit with hundreds of hidden temples and picturesque ghats surrounding the lake.

In addition to performances, the visitors may enjoy other activities and entertainments. Among them – Special night showcases at sand dunes, sunrise performances, temples and concerts at archaeological sites. Also, Music workshops and film screenings, Camel safaris, and of course, Local cuisine from across India.

Traditionally, in India they love the lotus and still worship it in ritual dances. If the dancer folds her hands at the face level with her fingers upwards, this means the sleeping lotus, if she moves her fingers and spreads them out – an opening flower.

The ancient Indian epic “Mahabharata” describes a lotus as a plant with a thousand petals, shining like sun and scattered around a delightful fragrance. This lotus, according to legends, lengthened life, restored youth and beauty.

Besides, the lotus in India is a symbol of purity. Growing out of the mud, it remains clean, and therefore it is compared to a chaste person, to whom no filth is bothering. By such chastity, Indian mythology endowed the goddess Sri, or Lakshmi, with the wife of Vishnu, who was the patroness of fertility and prosperity. Thus, her other names were – “born of a lotus,” “standing on a lotus,” “dyed with lotus.” Depicted in one of the temple medallions, the goddess Sri is standing on a lotus. Surrounded by leaves and flowers, she swims across the ocean.

Meanwhile, Russian painter Nicholas Roerich wrote about Indian women who came to the lakes to bow to the lotus.

Considered a sacred plant in India, ancient Indians represented the earth in the form of a lotus flower. Traditionally, the cult of the lotus goddess of fertility was widespread in the agricultural cultures of the country. And, probably, because from the most ancient times to the present time, the image of lotus decorate many spaces of prayer walls of Buddhist temples and monasteries, with the saying: “Om-mani-padme-hum” – “Blessed be, precious lotus!”

As the thousand-petalled golden lotus grows, the universe grows. The petals give rise to mountains, forests, rivers and valleys. And the red lotus is still the emblem of modern India. There is even a saying: “Lotus flowers – a ship on which a drowning man among the ocean of life can find his salvation.”
sources:
www.bluelotusfestival.com
facebook.com/bluelotusfestival/

Indian Blue Lotus Festival