Culture

How I Celebrated Vasant Panchami With My 3 Kids
Imagine growing up in a big multigenerational family. There's always someone's birthday coming up -- whether it's your kid's 5th birthday, your husband's 40th or your mother-in-law's 75th.I find our Hindu culture to be somewhat similar. With so many deities...
Holi: The Gateway Holiday
The haze of primary colors raining down on joyous, dancing crowds right around the time when the dreary final weeks of winter are giving way to the dewy hopefulness of spring -- it’s an image that even non-Hindus the world...
7 South Asian Athletes Competing in Sports in the USA
We often hear South Asians in media and entertainment, or even South Asians in kids literary world talk about the lack of diversity and representation. "You can't become something you can't see, right?" So, ahead of the Super Bowl this...
3 Simple Ways to Infuse South Asian Brands Into Your Thanksgiving
I didn’t grow up celebrating Thanksgiving – or any other major American holidays, for that matter. The closest I got to having a Christmas tree was when I drew one on a large construction paper and taped it to the...
How to Celebrate Onam While Living Abroad
WHAT IS ONAM By: Ann Ittoop (@thefamiliarkitchen) Every year in the South Indian state of Kerala, a major harvest festival occurs called Onam. Like most major Indian festivals, of course, there is a mythological story behind this 10 day festival...
Culture & Celebration: Embedding Indian culture into American Parties
Children’s parties have taken over my toddler’s social calendar. For some reason, summer seems to mean even more birthday parties. Therefore, children’s parties have taken over my social calendar. Every weekend, we schlep to a party filled with balloons, delicious...
This Pride Month, let’s celebrate Indian films that spotlight LGBTQ
"Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code: Unnatural offences: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a...
The hidden benefits of mantras: How reciting them could help with memory, cognition and immunity
When I was younger, we’d often go to family friends’ houses for pujas. The kids would hole away in a bedroom upstairs, watching cartoons, playing games, catching up – we didn’t understand Sanksrit, after all, and we just got restless...
From womb to puberty, Indians celebrate the various rites of passage
I didn’t have a traditional coming-of-age ceremony – I like to think I left my childhood behind when I got my first zit, freaked out about it, very vocally blamed it on my parents and then locked myself in my...
The meaning behind the some of the various spring holidays in India
If you’re ever going to take some time off from work for a religious holiday – mostly so you can have a cup of coffee on your couch uninterrupted for once – early spring is the time to do it....
Indians are full of superstitions – but how did they come to be?
I am the type of person that, once I hear a superstition, I never forget it. In my construction zone of a city, I’m constantly stepping around ladders on the sidewalk – even if it means hurling myself in front...