Janmashtami: Lord Krishna’s Birthday

I think that one thing I will need to get used to in Mumbai is that random festivals will spring up without any notice. Take, for instance, Janmashtami, a celebration in honor of Lord Krishna’s birthday.

I was awoken on Tuesday morning by a procession of young men on the adjacent street banging drums, singing, etc. Bands of men (and mostly young boys, really) from every neighborhood donned their neighborhood colors and went around building human pyramids (reminded me a bit of that Catalonian tradition) to try and reach a pot of butter that had been strung up high above the street. Apparently, such antics were akin to those of Lord Krishna, who, I hear, was a jokester and the Casanova of his day.

Needless to say, traffic was terrrible on Tuesday. But I did manage to get the above shot of the boys riding around in a Goods Carrier (call it a truck or lorry if you will) on their way to the next butter pot.

The next big festivity that I know of is the Ganesha Chathurti, a 10-day celebration in honor of Lord Ganesha. It’s supposed to be wild. I don’t doubt it.

Hopefully, I have already missed the festival called Naga Panchami, which celebrates cobras. My guidebook lists that it occurs in August/September, just like Janmashtami. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can avoid that one.