Since the chilling air of winter has changed into soothing cold breeze, here comes the spring season known as Basant or Vasant in India, one of the six Indian seasons.

Today is the 5^th day of Hindu month Maagh/Maghd considered as the first day of spring known as Vasant Panchami. Because of its strong significance in Hindu mythology, Vasant Panchami is one of the most important festivals in India.

To mark this day, the Central Public School (CPS) Udaipur celebrated Vasant Panchmi today in their school campus at Bhupalpura by doing Saraswati Pooja. Goddess Saraswati is known as the Goddess of Knowledge, Wisdom and Speech is worshipped in educational institutes and organizations on the day of Vasant Panchami.

Mamta Verma, teacher of Sanskrit told us that “generally Goddess Sarawati’s idol is worshipped on this day, but to make it remarkable we did it differently. In the morning assembly when all students and teachers were gathered for prayers, students were asked to close their eyes and pray to Goddess Saraswati to come and bless them. As soon as students opened their eyes they saw a girl dressed in white attire holding veena was sitting in front of them.

That girl was one of the students of CPS dressed as Saraswati.  Alka Sharma – Director of CPS washed her feet and worshipped the girl depicting as goddess Saraswati. This gave students a bundle of excitement. We chose a student because they are apprentice of knowledge and education and Saraswati is known as goddess of wisdom”.

Unlike the common school uniforms, all students including teachers were dressed in yellow color. Yellow signifies cheerfulness, wisdom, auspiciousness and intellectuality, is a symbol of spring.

Alka Sharma also explained the value of this day and importance of yellow color with scientific theory and color therapy.

Students were also asked to bring yellow food in their tiffins, there were also special food arrangements for teachers, like dishes prepared using saffron and turmeric to give it a yellow color.

There are diverse traditions followed in different parts of India on Vasant Panchami but few commonly believed rituals are worshipping Saraswati and considering this day as the start of agriculture season, it is also recognized as marriage season.  It is strongly believed that Vasant Panchmi is a pious day to start any new work.