occupied all the months of Bengalee.
Arandhan Utsav - one of them. Today is the festival of cooking
and obviously it related to the kitchen rooms of Bengalees.
At this moment, rural and urban households are almost engaged at the
kitchen room to cook various items, mainly fries
including the main item - Hilsa or Ilish.
Various names of this cooking - 'ichche-ranna' 'gabro ranna' 'athashe
ranna' 'dharate ranna' etc.
And today's ranna is 'Buro ranna' as tomorrow is the Vishwakarma Puja.
'Manasa' is the goddess of this festival. A temporary 'ghot' use to be
installed beside the clay oven specially made for this and the
branches of 'Phani Manasa' tree alongwith 'Shaluk' flowers they keep
into it. After the cooking, various items are use to keep near the
'ghot' to please the goddess.
Friends and neighbours are invited on this night to taste the fresh
items and if they're fortunate, then, some of them would also be
invited tomorrow to taste the overnight items and it will be called
'Arandhan-er nimantran' (the invitation of non-cooking day). --
A. B.
Comments