Hindu traditions
Hindu traditions fill the calendar of South Asia and the many places where Hindus have settled, from Bali and Mauritius to Fiji, Trinidad and Britain.
Hindu traditions fill the calendar of South Asia and the many places where Hindus have settled, from Bali and Mauritius to Fiji, Trinidad and Britain. They include daily puja, the festivals of Diwali, Holi, Navratri and Pongal, pilgrimages to the Ganges and Tirupati, the sixteen samskaras that mark life from birth to death and a great many regional and village customs. Hinduism has no single founder or text, and practice varies by family, region and community. These pages describe the traditions as those who keep them do.
Home and temple
Worship begins at home, with a shrine, a lamp and a morning prayer, and continues at the temple, where a priest offers the deity water, flowers, food and light on behalf of devotees. Visitors take darshan, receive prasad and walk around the shrine. Festivals bring the whole street into the temple or the pandal, with processions, music and communal meals, and the cycle of the year is marked by fasts and feasts.
Rites of life
The samskaras include the naming, the first rice, the sacred thread, marriage and the funeral. The wedding, with its seven steps round the fire, is the best known, while funerals involve cremation and offerings to the ancestors. Every region adds its own customs, such as the kolam in Tamil Nadu, the rakhi in the north and the Durga Puja of Bengal. The diversity is part of the tradition.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Hindu (faith). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇮🇳 India and 1 morePhulkariਫੁਲਕਾਰੀ
Geometric and floral threadwork embroidered by Punjabi women on handwoven cotton.Craft
🇰🇷 South Korea and 2 moreNajeonchilgi나전칠기
A Korean craft of inlaying mother-of-pearl onto lacquered wood to create decorative objects.Craft
🇵🇰 Karachi, Pakistan and 2 moreSouth Asian truck art
The craft of painting and adorning cargo trucks and buses across India and Pakistan.Craft
🇮🇳 Kolhapur, IndiaKolhapuri chappal
Handcrafted braided leather slip-on sandals from western IndiaCraft
🇧🇩 Dhaka, Bangladesh and 1 moreNakshi kanthaনকশি কাঁথা
A traditional embroidered quilt from Bengal, made by stitching layers of old cloth into colourful, patterned textiles.Craft
🇺🇦 Kyiv, Ukraine and 7 morePysankaписанка
A wax-resist egg decorating tradition kept by Slavic communities for Easter and spring renewal.Festival
🇮🇳 IndiaSanjhi
Autumn devotion honoring a mother goddess and sacred floor art of Radha and KrishnaSpiritual
🇮🇳 India and 2 morePandal
Temporary decorated pavilions and arches built for festivals and gatheringsFestival
🇮🇳 India and 4 moreSariसाड़ी
An unstitched length of cloth that women drape around the body, worn across South AsiaDress
🇵🇰 Multan, Pakistan and 3 moreShalwar kameez
Loose trousers and a long tunic, worn as one outfit across South AsiaDress
🇮🇳 IndiaGamosaগামুছা
A white Assamese cloth with a red border, worn, gifted and laid under sacred textsDress
🇮🇩 Yogyakarta, IndonesiaWayangꦮꦪꦁ
A night-long puppet theatre from Java, where a dalang tells epics behind a lit screenPerformance
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreKolamகோலம்
A rice-flour floor drawing made at South Indian doorsteps before sunriseCraft
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreRangoliरंगोली
Floor patterns of rice flour, sand or petals, drawn at the doorstep for festivalsCraft
🇮🇳 Nadia, IndiaDhunachi
A Bengali incense burner, swung in worship and danced with at Durga PujaSpiritual
🇮🇳 IndiaIndian wedding invitationनिमन्त्रण पत्र/पत्रिका
Decorative ceremonial cards sent to announce marriages and invite guests across IndiaRite of passage
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Indian wedding invitation: Onef9day, CC BY 3.0, source
- Pysanka: Lubap, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- South Asian truck art: Alexandros.Papadopoulos, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Kolhapuri chappal: Daderot, CC0, source
- Pandal: SHUBHAM KR SONI, CC0, source
- Sanjhi: Veer jindal, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Phulkari: Sheebamadanloewinger, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Nakshi kantha: A junaid alam khan ( talk ), Public domain, source
- Najeonchilgi: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Shalwar kameez: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Gamosa: Priyankoo at en.wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Rangoli: SreeramKalyan, CC0, source
- Wayang: Kevin Gessner, CC BY 2.0, source
- Sari: Suyash.dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dhunachi: Amitbsws, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kolam: mckaysavage, CC BY 2.0, source