Holi- The festival of Colors is almost here and everyone is ready with bright colors, water balloons, lavish gujiyas and with the pichkaris to celebrate the holi with great enthusiasm. But the colors may bring the extra baggage of rough skin, coarse hair and brittle nails. So here are some tips to make sure that you have a healthy and happy Holi.

Skin care: Keep yourself well-hydrated by having a good amount of liquid liquids, to avoid any ill effects on the skin. Apply oil on your body and hair before going out to play. This will prevent allergic reactions and staining on the skin. Apply Vaseline on your lips and foundation on your skin to protect it from dark colours.Go for herbal colours. They cause minimal harm to the skin.
One teaspoon of jojoba oil mixed with one drop each of lavender or neroli aroma oil along with tea-tree oil can make a protective base for the skin. Don’t scrub the skin too hard to remove colour. Keep it moisturised and remove the colour with a cleanser.

Hair care: Massage your hair with warm olive oil. To bring back lustre to your hair after Holi, mix half a cup of olive oil, an egg white and a little quantity of honey and use it to coat your hair. Rinse after half-an-hour. Always use a detergent-based clarifying shampoo. Hair conditioning is a must. Apply a hair pack of olive oil and honey after shampooing.

Nail care: Apply bright nail polish to avoid colours from sticking to your nails. Apply petroleum jelly and nail paint on the surface as well as inside the nail folds. Apply a base coat and then the nail polish making sure you cover the nail cuticles and the rounded edges.

Eye care: Don’t wear contact lenses since these tend to irritate the eyes while playing Holi.

May this Holi brings a lot of joy and happiness in our life.& Wish that your life becomes colorful as the colors of Holi. May God gift you all the colors of life, colors of joy, colors of happiness, colors of friendship, colors of love and all other colors you want to paint in your life. Happy Holi to all the readers of OceanOfWeb.

Tips To Make Your Holi Safe is a post from: Ocean of Web

Valentines Day is a day to express your love, and to celebrate the spirit of love. Valentine’s Day, or St Valentine’s Day, is celebrated every year on 14 February, which is a day of Love & Romance. The day is accepted from western culture & has its great significance among the youths. Valentine’s Day festival holds immense importance for those in love. Lovers around the world anxiously wait for the festival as it gives them an opportunity to express love for their beloved and spend a day in togetherness. It is celebrated worldwide including India. In India too people keenly wait for this occasion & enjoy it with their beloved by exchanging gifts & cards.

Celebrating the festival in a traditional manner lovers go out for date in a park or spend time looking into the eyes of their partners over a candlelight dinner. Indulging sweethearts with fresh flowers mainly red roses, chocolates, cards and other gifts of love is the other most popular custom of Valentine’s Day for lovers. On this day people express their love feelings to their beloved & make promises to share the bond of love & togetherness.

Valentine Day, a festival for love and romance, came in to being by the name of Saint. Valentine, who was the first to celebrate this day & gave the true meaning of love & romance. Excitement of Valentine’s Day can be felt weeks before the occasion. Prior to a month of the festival media start creating propaganda regarding 14th Feb & covers all facts of it.

St Valentines Day is a perfect occasion to express deepest feelings & love. On Valentine’s Day, lovers, friends and family members exchange Valentine Gifts as tokens of love. People exchange Cards & gifts on this day. Many fun-filled completions are also organized for couples & discounted offers are also availed for them. Soft toys, candies, flowers, cards & chocolates are used more popularly as Valentine gifts.

One week prior to 14th Feb there are around seven more days which are also celebrated in sequence they includes rose day, chocolate day, kiss day, slap day, hug day & so on, and the week is famous as Valentine’s week.

Many people are seen throwing parties in the celebration of 14th Feb. It’s the best day considered to propose your beloved, & hence people keenly wait for this festival. On this day, people showers their love on their loveones & greet them by giving the wishes of Valentines Day. Online greetings are also exchanged on this eve & people send valentine’s sms’s to their friends & knownones. Valentine’s Day provides us with a splendid opportunity to spend some quality time with our truelove. Couples also plan out romantic getaway or Valentine parties to celebrate 14th Feb romantically.

Valentine Day- Day of Love & Romance is a post from: Ocean of Web

New year is coming and is celebrated in all countries across the world. The New Year is the day that marks the end of one year and the beginning of the next year. Everyone is in great enthusiasm to wish their friends/relatives/dear ones in different ways. Have you ever think about the way to wish your Dear ones in their own language, in their own native languages.

Let’s celebrate the New Year to wish your friends a Happy New Year in their native language. Find out how “Happy New Year” is said in different countries around the world.

Wish All the readers of Oceanofweb a Happy New Year, Let this year give all the resources you need to reach higher heights.

New Year In Different Languages is a post from: Ocean of Web

Today is Veterans Day and a United States holiday.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into “All” Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans. With the help of then-U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.

Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since. Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978 it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11 (with the exceptions described above). Since this change, there has been a trend against being closed on the holiday. It began with businesses (excluding banks) and in recent years some schools and local governments have also chosen to remain open. [Via]

History of Veterans Day is a post from: Ocean of Web

India is a land of festivals. Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated with fervor and gaiety. The festival is celebrated by young and old, rich and poor, throughout the country to dispel darkness and light up their lives. The festival symbolizes unity in diversity as every state celebrates it in its own special way. DIWALI original name ‘Deepavali. DIWALI is actually derived from the original name ‘Deepavali’. Deepa in Sanskrit means ‘light’ and ‘avali’ means a row. When literally translated, Deepavali means a ‘row of lights’. As per the Indian calendar it is celebrated on Amavasya (the new moon day) in the end of the month Ashwin, which ushers in the month of Karthik around October/ November every year.

Diwali is celebrated in north India in honor of Rama’s return to Ayodhya after he vanquished Ravana. He was also coronated as a king on the same day. It is celebrated twenty days subsequent to Vijayadasami. But in some states it is celebrated for different reasons. For instance, in Gujarat it is an event to welcome Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Bengalis worship Goddess Kali on this day. The celebrations are however quite uniform throughout the country.

Crackers are sine qua non for this festival. So more the noise the merrier it is. Homes are light up for the festival with diyas-small oil lanterns. You have ‘rockets’ which are highly whimsical in the way they veer. They can zip at you from out of the blue making you run for cover!!! Then you have deafening hydrogen bombs which can unnerve you by making your heart skip a beat. But the most pleasing sight, however, is that of little kids holding sparklers gleefully. The fountain like shower of a flower pot is also a spectacle worth a watch. So nylon clothes should not be worn on that day to preempt any hazards. Most of the large organizations in Northern and Western India present their employees and clients a boxful of sweets.

Wishing you & your Family a Joyful & Peaceful Diwali. May the Festival of Light, that is Diwali, Shine & Bless your Home with Joy, Peace, Health & Wealth. Happy Diwali.

Happy Diwali is a post from: Ocean of Web

India is a country that is culturally so rich that it celebrates one or the other festival almost every month. And most of these festivals have their origin in Indian Mythology and there is very interesting stories about them. It is the spiritual and religious richness in India that each festival is related to some or other deity. One of such festivals is the ‘festival of lights’, Deepawali. Dipavali is the Indian festival that brings a series of festivals with it. One after another it gives a chance to celebrate five festivals together.

Return of Shri Ram Chandra to Ayodhyaa
The most famous legend behind the celebrations of diwali is about the prince of Ayodhya Nagri, Lord Shri Ram Chandra. The story goes like the king of Lanka, Ravan kidnapped Ram Chandra’s wife, Sita from the jungle where they were staying as per the instructions of King Dashratha, father of Ram Chandra. Then Ram Chandra attacked Lanka and killed Ravan and released Sita from imprisonment. He returned to Ayodhyaa with his wife Sita and younger brother Lakshamana after fourteen years. Therefore the people of Ayodhyaa decorated their homes as well as the city of Ayodhyaa by lighting tiny diyas all over in order to welcome their beloved prince Shri Ram Chandra and Devi Sita.

Incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi
On the auspicious new moon day, which is ‘Amavasyaa’ of the Hindi month of Kartik the Goddess of wealth and prosperity, Lakshmi was incarnated. She appeared during the churning of the ocean, which is known as ‘Samudra Manthan’, by the demons on one side and ‘Devataas’ on the other side. Therefore the worship of Goddess Lakshmi, the Lakshmi Pujan, on the day of Divali became a tradition.

Lord Krishna Destroyed Demon Narakasur
One famous story behind the celebrations of Diwali is about the demon king Narakasur who was ruler of Pragjyotishpur, a province to the South of Nepal. During a war he defeated Lord Indra and snatched away the magnificent earrings of Mother Goddess Aditi who was not only the ruler of Suraloka but also a relative of Lord Krishna’s wife, Satyabhama. Narakasur also imprisoned sixteen thousand daughters of Gods and saints in his harem. With the support of Lord Krishna Satyabhama defeated Narakasur and released all the women from his harem and also restored the magnificent earrings of Mother Goddess Aditi.

The Return of the Pandavas
The great Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’ has another interesting story related to the ‘Kartik Amavasyaa’. The story reads that ‘the Pandavas’, the five brothers Yudhishthhira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahdeva, were sentenced thirteen years banishment as a result of their defeat against ‘the Kauravas’, Duryodhana and his ninety nine brothers, at the game of dice. Therefore they spent thirteen years in the jungles and returned to their kingdom on the day of ‘Kartik Amavasyaa’. On their return the people of their kingdom welcomed the Pandavas by celebrating the event by lighting the earthen lamps all over in their city.

History Of Diwali- Indian Light Festival is a post from: Ocean of Web

Introduction
Dussehra, also called “Navaratri”, is among the most important festivals celebrated in Southern India. Unlike Dussehra, this is celebrated for 10 days in Southern parts.

The Festival of Dussehra is celebrated on the occasion of Navaratri. Celebrations are unique ranging from worshipping goddess Chamundeshwari (Durga) to exhibiting colorful toys on the day of ‘bombe habba’ in Kannada or ‘Bommala Koluvu’ in Telugu. The festival of Dussehra is an important celebration in many parts of the country. It is celebrated with great fanfare in most parts of North India, Mysore and in the form of Durga Puja in West Bengal.

Dussehra is a very popular Hindu festival, which marks the defeat of Ravana by Lord Rama. Dussehra also symbolises the triumph of warrior Goddess Durga over the buffalo demon, Mahishasura.
The ‘Ramlila’ – an enactment of the life of Lord Rama, is held during the nine days preceding Dussehra. On the tenth day (Dussehra or Vijay Dasami), larger than life effigies of Ravana, his son and brother – Meghnadh and Kumbhakarna are set to fire.

The theatrical enactment of this dramatic encounter is held throughout the country in which every section of people participates enthusiastically.

In burning the effigies the people are asked to burn the evil within them, and thus follow the path of truth and goodness, bearing in mind the instance of Ravana, who despite all his might and majesty was destroyed for his evil ways.

Legends
Dussehra is also known as Vijaya Dasami, because of the victory of Ram over Ravana. On this day in Satya Yug, Ram (the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu), killed the great demon and king of Lanka, Ravana.

Puranas also opined that in this day warrior Goddess Durga defeated and killed the buffalo demon Mahishasura.

Rituals
Worship of the Goddess is the oldest tradition, signifying the female deity’s supremacy over the male Gods who are unable to destroy the demon.

The worship of Durga Mata has also social implications. As Goddess of war, she is a particular favourite of the Kshatriyas, the warrior caste, once constituting the ruling elite and aristocracy.

During this time people decorate the entrance of their houses with torans, and flower studded strings. The leaves of the Apta tree are collected and exchanged among friends and relatives as gold.

Dussehra Puja in India varies from place to place and is influenced by local myth and religious beliefs.

The festival is also celebrated with intense fervour and zest, in West Bengal. The vibrant festivities last for ten days, of which nine nights are spent in worship, ‘Navaratri’.

The tenth day is devoted to the worship of goddess Durga, who occupies a special position in the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses. She is ‘Shakti’, the cosmic energy that animates all beings. Beautiful idols of the Mother Goddess are worshipped in elaborate pandals for nine days, and on the ninth day, these are carried out in procession for immersion (visarjan) in a river or pond.

Celebrations
In Himachal Pradesh, a week long fair in the hill town of Kullu, is part of the Dussehra celebrations. From the little temples in the hills, deities are brought in procession to the ‘maidan’ in Kullu, to pay homage to the reigning deity, Raghunathji. The celebration actually begins nearly 10 days in advance as per tradition.

In Mysore, Karnataka the Mysore palace is illuminated for a whole month during Dussehra and caparisoned elephants lead a colourful procession through the gaily-decorated streets of the city. It is the most colourful celebration of Dussehra in world. The spectacular procession taken out on this day is really enjoyable.

In Tamil Nadu, the first three days are dedicated to the worship of Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and prosperity, the next three days to Saraswati, Goddess of learning and arts and the last three days to Shakti (Durga).

In Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, families arrange dolls (Bommai Kolu) on artificially constructed steps and prepare an elaborate spread of lamps and flowers. Women traditionally exchange gifts of coconuts, clothes and sweets.

The whole set up is put on the very first day of Navaratri. Vijaya Dashamiy is an auspicious occasion for children to commence their education inclassical dance and music, and to pay homage to their teachers.

In Punjab, Navaratri is taken as a period of fasting. In Gujarat, the evenings and nights are occasions for the fascinating Garba dance. The women dance around an earthen lamp while singing devotional songs accompanied by rhythmic clapping of hands.

In northern India, the festival wears the colourful garb of Ramlila wherein various incidents from Rama’s life are enacted. Ramlila draws large number of people every year. The entire night of Dussehra passes in an enthusiastic and enchanting fair like ambience and people enjoy every bit of it. After Dussehra, the excitement of the Diwali grips the whole of India.

Happy Dussehra is a post from: Ocean of Web