Main place of worship: the Temple
There are thousands of Hindus temples in India and elsewhere, temples associated with the major "high" gods, but also local deities. Each temple is different, its style and structure dictated by the region in which it is located, when it was constructed, and the deity to whom it is associated.
Temples are sacred because they are where the gods live, (is fundamentally their earthly abode) and where humans have access to them. Temples are also where many Hindus rituals are performed.
At the center of the temple complex is the main structure that houses the main image, or Murti—the physical image of the deity, which, unlike in many other religions, is not merely a symbolic representation. The Murti is the deity; it is considered to be the living god, and is treated as such. It is often bathed, fed, and directly addressed by the god's devotees. This main image is typically located within the Garbhagriha (literally "womb chamber"), the inner sanctorum.
Main place of worship: the "Sacred Crossing"
There are many other sorts of sacred space in India, many of them significant pilgrimage destinations. These include sacred rivers, which are understood to be goddesses. Of particular importance in this regard are special "crossings," or Tirthas, places where the gods "cross" into the human world. There are seven most famous sacred crossing in India, three of them related to the sacred river Ganges.
Because Tirthas are places where deities cross into the human world, are locations where also humans can pass from the mundane world to the liberation from the cycle of rebirth. In fact Tirthas are destinations for pilgrimage and bathing in their sacred rivers is said to be particularly cleansing of sin.
There are thousands of minor and dozens of major Tirthas throughout the Indian subcontinent. Indeed, in an important sense the entirety of India is understood to be a sacred space, the abode of the gods and goddesses This, in part, explains why Hinduism has tended not to spread outside of India.
Main rites: Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage in Hinduism, as in other religions, is the practice of journeying to sites where religious powers, knowledge, or experience are deemed especially accessible. Hindu pilgrimage is rooted in ancient scriptures. According to sacred Hindus texts, in which the “wanderer” is praised and particular sacred sites are deemed to grant benefits, such as health, wealth, progeny, and liberation after death. Moreover, epic literature narrates the pilgrimages of famous heroes, thus providing the perfect paradigm of the pious pilgrim. Pilgrimage has been increasingly popular since the 20th century, facilitated by ever-improving transportation. However, movement over actual distance is critical to pilgrimage, for what is important is not just visiting a sacred space but the journey in itself. The pilgrimage is somehow akin to the ascetic practices, with the difference that the former is a collective endeavor. Like the ascetic, who perform exercise and feasting to find the sparkle of Absolute within him/herself, so the pilgrims undertake a difficult journey to purify themselves in order to be more receptive, once arrived to their destination, to the divine presence of the site. Rituals and celebrations of the ancestors are important part of the pilgrimage.
Main Rites: Festivals
Hindus festivals are combinations of religious ceremonies, semi-ritual spectacles, worship, prayer, lustrations, processions, music and dances, eating, drinking, lovemaking, licentiousness, feeding the poor, and other activities of a religious or traditional character. The original purpose of these activities was to purify, avert malicious influences, renew social harmony, bridge over critical moments, and stimulate or resuscitate the vital powers of nature . Because Hindus festivals relate to the cyclical life of nature, they are supposed to prevent it from stagnating. They are characterized by the stop of ordinary activities, like everyday work, to leave room for often antithetical behaviors, which are said to possess a sacred character that enables the seasonal change to work smoothly. There are festivals related to seasonal changes as well as innumerable festivities in honor of specific gods, celebrated by individual temples, villages, and religious communities.
Analysis of sources:
Sources n° 1
Scheme of Vishvanath Temple
The structure of the temple shows, with its roofs of increasing height, the gradual approach to the divinity chamber, the Inner Sanctum.
Amalaka: a stone disk, atop the temple's main tower. According to one interpretation, the Amalaka represents a lotus, and thus the symbolic seat for the deity below. Another interpretation is that it symbolizes the sun, and is thus the gateway to the heavenly world.
Entrance Porch : The entrance porch formed a transitional area between the outside world and the Hall.
Hall : A hall in the temple, forming a transitional space between the Entrance Porch and the Great Hall.
Great Hall : The temple's main entrance-hall, separated from the central shrine , by a short vestibule. Just about every temple has some sort of entrance-hall between the central shrine and the outside world.
Vestibule: a transitional space between a temple's main hall and the inner sanctum. This architectural element marks the liminal space between the exterior world and the divine world.
Inner Sanctum (Garbhagriha): The temple's inner sanctum, containing the image of the temple's primary deity. The basic function of a Hindus temple is to serve as the deity's dwelling-place (the most common word for temple, mandir, simply means "house"), and devotees come there to interact with and worship the resident deity. The Garbhagriha was located directly below the summit of the highest tower, with the primary deity directly under the highest point. Larger temples such Vishvanath often also have a processional pathway ("ambulatory") around the central shrine, via which devotees can circle around the deity as a gesture of respect and worship.
Secondary Tower: smaller towers on the temple's exterior to lead the eye up to the highest point.
Base Platform: The raised base on which a temple was built.
Sources n° 2
Benares embankments along the Ganges river
Varanasi, known also as Benares, is an Indian city on the banks of the Ganges in the state of Uttar Pradesh.It is one of the seven Hindus holiest Sacred Crossing (see above), being considered as the favourite city of the Hindus deity Shiva (see sec. 6). Given this connection with Shiva, the god of ascetism and liberation from the eternal cycle of rebirth, Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges remits sins and that dying in Varanasi ensures release of a person's soul from the cycle of rebirth. Thus, many Hindus arrive here for dying.
The photo shows the so called Ghats, embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions. Most of the Ghats are bathing Ghats, while others are used as cremation sites.
Sources n° 3
Holi, Hindus spring festival celebrated throughout North India around February–March. The festival has many purposes; most prominently, it celebrates the end of the winter season and thus it is of good auspicious for future harvest. It also has a religious meaning of the victory of good over evil, symbolized by the legend of Holika ( from which comes the name Holi), a demoness burnt by a bonfire thanks to the intervention of the deity Vishnu (see sec. 5). In some parts of India this festival commemorates also the myth of the playful love between Krishna (a manifestation of Vishnu) and Radha, a young shepherdess, who painted her own face.
On the eve of Holi, typically at or after sunset, the pyre is lit, symbolizing the burning of the demoness Holika. People gather around the fire, sing and dance.
Holi celebrations begin the morning after Holika bonfire. Participants throw colored water and powders on one another, and, on this one day only, license is given for the usual rankings of caste, gender, status, and age to be reversed. Groups carry drums and musical instruments, go from place to place, sing and dance. Ascetics smoke cannabis as part of their religious practices.
After a day of play with colors, people clean up, wash and bathe, sober and dress up in the evening and greet friends and relatives by visiting them and exchanging sweets. The ordered patterns of society are reasserted and renewed. Holi is also a festival of forgiveness and new starts, which ritually aims to generate harmony in the society.
Intercultural and interdisciplinar information
(History)
The Holi festival share many characteristic with the ancient roman festivity Saturnalia and with present-day Carnival festival in Christian countries. The common theme is the suspension of productive activities, customary norms and behaviors. Saturnalia was characterized by role reversals and behavioral license, so that slaves were permitted to enjoy a pretense of disrespect for their masters, and exempted them from punishment. The same applies for Carnival, in which dressing up and masquerades mark the overturning of the norms of daily life. In each case, though, the transgression has to be temporary and the social order has to be restored. The sacred character of the social overturning has the function of renewing and re-establishing the profane social order.
Link to Other Modules:
Major religious fests
Judaism II. Themes sec. 3