Bhoomi Hunnime - day of earth worship

Bhoomi Hunnime is a festival for worshiping mother earth, say sorry for the digging and troubling her all round the year, offer delicacies to her and pray for a good harvest. For western people and people in cities it may look like a meaningless celebration. It is a natural thing and their own extension for people connected with the soil. Mother earth gives birth to us and supports our life in every way. That is why Indian farmers in our villages treat her as mother. This is the time when the crops are about to start flowering and producing grain. Therefore people treat earth as a pregnant lady. They worship her and offer many delicacies to her like we do in case of a pregnant lady. Some of these delicacies are buried in the soil and spread in the soil with the belief that it will satisfy pregnant mother earth's food craving. Even today many Indians don't look at earth as a 50x60 plot or a commodity to sell and buy. Earth is treated with greatest respect as a living being - which it is and it deserves that respect and royal treatment. No wonder, this festival is celebrated in India, the land where every living thing is treated as God. We are not at war with the nature like today's industrial farming, we are one with the nature and treat nature as God.

Mr. Satyanarayana Bhat (foreground) and his wife (background)

This year I got an opportunity to attend some of these celebrations. Some pictures of earth worship are here. See how environment friendly they are - everything is bio-degradable or becomes food for some animal. Even the lamp is made up of coconut shell. This is how we all were few years back. Plastics and chemicals have invaded our lives only in recent years. There is urgent need to reverse the clock and go back few decades. Only then can we live happy and fulfilling life like our ancestors did.

Mr. Kiran (foreground) and his son Tejas (background)

After the worship we ate in the farm and came back. This experience will remain in our memory for a long time.

Environment friendly lamp made from coconut shell

An example of environment conscience our ancestors had. Even the lamp is made from used coconut shell. People use lot of coconut to cook the delicacies for the celebration. One of those shells becomes the lamp :-)