Saturday, August 15, 2009

Krishna Jayanthi celebration and Sweet Aval (poha/flattened rice)


Sri Krishna Jayanti marks the celebration of the birth of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. Lord Sri Krishna was born on the 'Rohini' nakshatram (star) on Ashtami day. The festival Sri Krishna Jayanti is also known as Gokulashtami and Janmashtam. The actual day of celebration can be on two different days as the star 'Rohini' and Ashtami may not be on the same day. This occurs between August and September on the Christian calendar.

This year it was celebrated on 13th of August.

Since I have a whole bunch of Krishnas in my collection, I always display all of them as a golu and offer pooja to them. :)



Sri Krishna is Lord Vishnu's eighth avatar (incarnation) on earth. He is considered to be the Lord's most glorious incarnations. Even saying and remembering His name brings joy because Sri Krishna himself was a manifestation of joy at all levels and in all walks of life. No other God in the Hindu pantheon, or for that matter in any other religion, is associated with so many romantic tales and so fully radiating with all the divine attributes as Sri Krishna.

More details on this festival is found here.



Its a practice of drawing little krishna's foot marks using rice flour from the entrance to the place where the lord is arranged. This marks that the lord himself has come home. :)



I have offered lord with 33 prasadams since I have placed 33 idols in my golu. :)

Namely - Milk, Butter, Navanitham(mixture of butter with sugar), curd, Paalkova(milk sweet), Sweet poha, Badam, pista, cashew, Kalkandu(sugar crystals), paanagam(jaggery mixed with water), mixture, 5 types of savouries, Jangiri, chocolates, plumcake, jelly, sweet seedai, salt seedai, sesame balls, Suruta poli(sweet), Adhirasam(jaggery riceflour sweet), thattai, Soan papadi, Jamoon, mint balls, halwa, dates and fruits. :):)


Since Sri Krishna lived in luxury throughout his life, Krishna Jayanti is celebrated with pomp and splendor. Plenty of sweets are made. Among these are laddus (yellu oonde), chakli, cheedai, payasam (kheer), sweet aval and so on. In addition, plenty of milk products especially butter, which was Sri Krishna's favorite childhood food, are given in offerings. A wide variety of fruits are also offered.



At home we used to keep all food that can attract a kid as prasadam since Sri Krishna is considered as a kid. :) So you can see chocolates, cakes and biscuits in my offerings unlike others. :) ;)




Sweet Aval/ Poha

Ingredients:

Aval(poha/ flattened rice) - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom - for flavour
Ghee - 2 tsp
Coconut - 1 tsp
Cashews - few


Method:

Soak poha in a bowl, pouring in adequate water(say about 1 inch above the level of poha) for 2 hours.

In a pan, heat a tsp of ghee and add the broken cashews. Once they turn golden brown remove from flame and keep it aside in a plate.

Now in a pan take jaggery and add water to immerse it. Once the jaggery melts and becomes thick (if you pour a drop of it in a cup of water it should not dissolve immediately. A sticky consistancy.) simmer the stove and add the poha and mix well. Now add the the cashews, ghee and powdered cardamom.

Sweet aval/poha is ready to eat. Its absolutely yummy and tempting. Happy making and eating :)



Wish you all a very happy Krishna Jayanthi :)

I am sending this post to Purva's FF event.


Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

33 comments:

sathya said...

Thats a lovely post nithya! Nice decorations. Poha looks delicious.

Sailaja Damodaran said...

lovely ....no words to express.i daughter loved the idols.....nice collection

Parita said...

Wow nithya thats a real feast! all the pictures look gorgeous dear! wish u happy janmashtami too

Sailaja Damodaran said...

can u post the 33 items u displayed ...very curious to know!!!!!!!!!!! i was repeatedly going & seeing the idols......

Bhawna said...

Beautiful post, ur prasadam looks splendid and delicious. 33 kinds, ur right makhan chor kanhaiya loves his food. Thanks for the divine pictures.

Mythreyi Dilip said...

Hi Nithya, thanks for stopping by my blog and for your lovely comments dear. You have a great blog. I love to celebrate "Krishna jayanthi" since we recently moved to North Carolina, i missed the function. You have beautiful collection of Krishna idols. Nice recipe dear, i loved your blog and will be frequently visiting your blog. Keep in touch:)

Jen Kumar said...

Wow Nithya, This post is inspirational.

I love your Krishna displays and your photography and artwork, superb! Are you in the middle east? I saw the snickers bar has Arabic looking writing on it?

How long does it take you to create a post. You do not simply put something without putting thought in it! Thanks for sharing this. I put a link on my website

http://alaivani.com/Blog/tabid/56/EntryID/239/Default.aspx

Jen Kumar said...

Nithya one more doubt I have, can you share how you have made the footprints so elegantly and so consistently? I have a problem with that! Thanks.

Shama Nagarajan said...

nice decoration

Unknown said...

That is so sweet of you! Cute to offer cadburys!

Priya dharshini said...

Grand celebration of krishna jayanthi...god bless u

Pari Vasisht said...

Great celebration and beautiful clicks. You god is really gonna bless you now that u have tempted him with 33 prasads.

Unknown said...

wow.. great clicks.. nice celebration..

vidhas said...

Awesome decoration and collection of sri krishna.

Divya Kudua said...

My my..I am sure Krishna would be so happy to devour all the goodies.33 sweets in all..??Wow!!

Unknown said...

THANGAMANI...RENGAMANI...SUPAL

BY

RASATHEE ROSAPU

Saraswathy Balakrishnan said...

A very good post ...beautiful deco

GEETHA ACHAL said...

மிகவும் அழகாக எல்லாம் பொருமையாக செய்து இருக்கின்றிங்க...எவ்வளவு நேரம் எடுத்து இருக்கும். உங்களுக்கு என்னுடைய வாழ்த்துகள்...

கொலுவில் இருக்கும் கிருஷ்ணர்கள் மிகவும் அழகாக இருக்கின்றனர்...

அருமை...

Vijitha said...

Hey nithya! lovely post. This is my first Krishnajayanthi after my wedding. So I drew krishna's leg n offered prayers with aval payasam, butter n fruits. Yours looks so good. Nice pictures! n cute little feet.

Nice blog!

Vani said...

Love your Krishna collection. And totally loved the Cadbury's neivedyam for Him. He'd love that! :)

Anu said...

Awesome decoration... Grand celebration... Happy Janmashtami.. Very nice.

Vidhya said...

I feel like coming to your house right now Nithya. So sweet. How could you offer 33 prasadams. could you post a big picture of those. BTW thanks for visiting mine. adding your blog in my blogroll..

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Wow thats wonderful collection of cute krishna and lovely post Nithi.. awesome keep going

Unknown said...

beautiful pic and lovely spread every thing looks so delicious.

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Wow very lovely post. Looks wonderful. Great dear. Nice click.

Usha said...

Nithya, loved your Krishna "golu", so lovely,beautiful decorations and great kolam !
The vella aval looks yum, I made it this time for Krishna jayanthi too :-)

sangeeta said...

great celebration Nithya...
this sweet poha is sure to become my fave as i like jaggery very much...we make it with curds without cooking but this version looks good too..

Aps Kitchen said...

Hey M sure ur krishna must have had doube..triple feast vth snickers...DM..nd whtn all each n everything is inviting here...Ur blog is bookmarked from now :)

lata raja said...

wow Nithi, iththanai kolai kollum Krishnas with you. Loved 33 neivedhyam too.

Menaga Sathia said...

சூப்பர் நித்யா!!எவ்வளவு அழ்கா பொருமையா செய்தீருக்கிங்க.பாராட்டுக்கள்!!

Purva Desai said...

OMG! This is a divine feast for Bal Gopal.....everything looks tempting I am sure Lord must be pleased by this delicious feast...

I am really fascinated seeing the beautiful collection of Lord Krishna

Thank you for the lovely entry for the event

Unknown said...

just came across ur blog...oh my gawd!!! excellent...did u learn all those crafts and garnishing talents some where? or is it just ur own imagination?...ganesha idol made by u with the buter murukku maavu looks awesome...hats off...

sandhiya said...

awesome,lovely,there is no words to express in words alone,so unique and soooooooooooo good

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