Dhanteras is a much-awaited festival for Hindus in India as it is called the day of wealth. The word ‘Dhan’ means wealth and ‘Teras’ means the thirteenth day of the Hindu moon cycle. This auspicious day falls on the thirteenth day in the month of ‘Karthika maasa’ on the day of Karthika Krishna Paksha as per the Hindu calendar. This day marks the beginning of the five-day-long festival of Diwali or Deepavali.
Dhanteras or Dhantrayodashi is believed to be the day Goddess Lakshmi emerged as a result of the churning of the ocean (Samudra Manthan). On this day, people pray to the Goddess for a long life filled with wealth, health and prosperity of their whole family. It is a general ritual of buying new things and purchasing valuables suggesting that the Goddess has entered the home herself.
Significance of Dhanteras
Several stories revolve around why Dhanteras is celebrated and what the significance is in different parts of the country. One popular one is that of Dhantrayodashi. Apart from this, there is a story of celebrating Yama Trayodashi. According to a legend, King Hima’s son who was 16 years old, was predicted of dying from a snake bite after four days of his wedding. The prince’s wife did not let him sleep on the third night, lit lamps and laid out all the jewels, gold coins, etc. outside her husband’s sleep chamber. The young princess kept him awake by singing songs and narrating stories. That night, when Lord Yama came in the form of a snake, the light from the jewels and the lamps blinded him. He wasn’t able to enter the chamber, hence sat on the pile of coins and listened to the stories and songs. And, the next morning, he went away without taking Hima’s son.
According to Bhagavatha Purana, Lord Dhanvatari – the originator of Ayurveda appeared with Amrit – the elixir of life, during the churning of the ocean, on this very day.
This day holds more significance as a day where new replaces old.
Similarly, we should clear our minds of all the negativity and fill ourselves with good thoughts and kindness to either donate to feed the children who are hungry or to take care of homeless people. Thousands of people and little children stay hungry trying to make ends meet. For them, every single day is a day of struggle between food and other necessities.
To support such parents who struggle to feed and educate their children, NGOs sponsor their meals and education with the help of online donations or in-kind donations from their supporters. These non-profit organisations implement various programmes that are a part of the Government’s beneficial schemes like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme under the PM Poshan Abhiyaan for children and the Anganwadi scheme for pregnant and lactating mothers under the Integrated Child Development Services.
One such not-for-profit organisation is The Akshaya Patra Foundation which works on a Public-Private-Partnership model to provide mid-day meals to school-going children under the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan. With various individual donors, corporate partners who donate to feed the children and strong support from various Governments, the NGO cooks and serves locally palatable meals to eliminate classroom hunger.
Akshaya Patra is a 21-year-old NGO that feeds meals to 20,10,516 children in 22,367 schools across 65 locations in 14 states & 2 union territories of India.
What can you achieve by supporting Akshaya Patra?
By contributing to Akshaya Patra to provide nutritious meals to children studying in Government and Government-aided schools, you support in:
Nourishing children and taking care of their nutritional status
Giving children a chance to get educated by giving them a reason to come to school
Helping children concentrate in class so that they improve their scores
Reducing the chances of school dropout rates
Giving children the hope that they too can dream to achieve something they thought they could never achieve.
Can you imagine the smiles on their faces when they get these meals and also get an opportunity to achieve more in life? It is priceless!
So this Dhanteras, make way for new thoughts. Wish the best for children by giving them a future filled with health and dreams.
May you and your family be blessed with abundance!
Happy Dhanteras!
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