Krishna Janmashtami

Krishna Janmashtami as the name says signifies the birth of lord Krishna, celebrated on Ashtami, the 8th day of Shravan Maas in Hindu calender...Janmashtami is celebrated in different ways in different parts of the country, here in Mumbai its very well know as Dahi Handi....

A pot/matka filled with dahi/curd in hung up in the air... A gang of participants so called Balgopals or Govindas make human pyramid down on the ground to reach the pot hung up high and break it with coconut. When i searched for the History behind this celebration, came across this interesting story.

A community called Pathare Prabhu staying in the village called Girgaum in south Mumbai (then called Bombay) used to celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna by performing Govinda. This community of Pathare Prabhu was affluent and had many servants to work on their farms. These workers were mainly from Kunbi community from Bankot in Konkan region of Maharastra state in India. On Krishna's birthday, earthen pot filled with Dahi curds and butter and other eatables preferably bananas would be hung at a suitable height. Servants of the Pathare Prabhu families would collect and make a human pyramid under the pot and then a little boy most probably the youngest child from that family would climb over them, reach the pot and then break it. That was the sport to be played on that day to celebrate the birth of the lord. check it out in detail here.

2010 was my first year here in Mumbai and i was so much excited to witness the dahi handi near my place. I still remember we started from home at 6 in the evening, even after my husband telling me that all the handis would be broken only after 10. I just wanted to see how exactly the celebration would be... I must say, i just loved the crowd, people, people and people everywhere. And the Govindas in their vehicles....

Even after two years i had the same spirit to walk into the crowded streets this year too. I do enjoy watching the crowd, but when i watch the kid on the top of the human pyramid trying to break the handi i just prey, no one should get hurt.....

The crowd...

Participants with their trophies

One of the dahi handi's we never miss to visit every year is Sanskruti Prathishtan, which is very much near my place and also because we get to see some Bollywood celebrity guests... Its almost 50ft high with prize money upto 25lacs. Below are the pics of Sanskruti Prathishtan, i had to forcibly pull my hubby to the terrace of a building nearby to witness this..

It started raining so heavily and he got a chance to pull me off from there as it would take 2 more hours for the handi to be broken.... On the way back we found another Handi and since the rain had stopped, we thought of waiting there. We waited for almost an hour and it was worth a wait to witness two handis to be broken....