Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan is a popular and traditional Hindu annual celebration or ritual that is central to a festival of the same name celebrated in India and among Hindu communities around the world. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a sacred thread, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers. Tying a rakhi on a brother, or on brothers, symbolically represents the sacred bond of protection as exemplified between Krishna and Draupadi, according to the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. Typically, the sister will perform a ritual including performing a small aarti and applying tilak, tie the rakhi, exchange sweets with her brother/s and receive a gift. Traditionally, the ritual invests the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their sisters's care.

Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shravana, which typically falls in August. The expression "Raksha Bandhan" (literally, Sanskrit for "the bond of protection, obligation, or care") is now principally applied to this ritual. Until the mid-20th century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts. In that ritual, a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money. This is still the case in some places. By contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location. Some were rendered as saluno, silono, and rakri. A ritual associated with saluno included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.

Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy. The bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents by custom do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony. Their brothers, who typically live with their parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.

In urban India, where families are increasingly nuclear, the festival has become more symbolic but continues to be highly popular. The rituals associated with this festival have evolved beyond the traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration. Other factors that have played a role are: Indian movies, social interaction, and promotion by politicized Hinduism, as well as by the nation state. Among females and males who are not blood relatives, the act of a Hindu girl tying the rakhi has given rise to the tradition of voluntary kin relations, which has sometimes cut across lines of caste, class, and religion to honour friends and neighbours. Authority figures have been included in such a ceremony.