Fifteen Fabulous Festivals

Source: www.hinduismtoday.com/festivals/

KAPAA, HI, USA, March 2, 2010: Hinduism Today is reaching out with accurate and uplifting information about Hinduism for Hindu communities and your local newspapers. And you can help.

Imprecise information, unflattering photos and an obsession for the bizarre are common when the media features our faith. For most Hindus, there seems little or nothing that can be done about this, except to practice detachment and soulful acceptance. That was the tone at a 2007 Hindu conference in Dallas, Texas, when suddenly the leaders collectively declared “Enough.” Determined to complain less and do more, they masterminded the Hindu Festival Media Initiative, a strategic project designed by Hinduism Today in collaboration with the Sanatana Dharma Foundation.

We selected fifteen major festivals as the core of the project and, in collaboration with Soumya Sitaraman of Bangalore, created a series of “pagers,” ready-to-print, newspaper-sized posters. They match standard US newspapers in journalistic style and size, making them easy to use, especially for small publishers with limited staff.

Newspapers (especially in these days of budgetary cutbacks) welcome input from faith communities if the material is of high editorial quality, with polished text and eye-catching photos, more so if it’s free. Motivated Hindus are encouraged to approach their local newspapers’ religion or lifestyle editors with the appropriate pager in the weeks before each festival. Editors may elect to use them as is, or draw from the graphics and words and adapt them to their own style. Television and public radio stations can also be approached; the pagers can provide a comprehensive and authentic summary for voice-overs. They are available on the web as teaching resources for families, schools, summer camps, temples, ashrams, bloggers, etc.

Talk to your local temple board, the local Hindu association and newspapers in your area. On this page you will find PDF’s of the pages. Download the PDF and take it to the editor of your local newspaper, or send them the URL to come to this page you are reading with the link http://www.hinduismtoday.com/festivals/

No matter where you live, these festival summaries will provide your local media with informative, factual information about your faith. By preemptively explaining how Hindus experience and understand Sanatana Dharma, we bridge the we-they cultural gap and participate proactively in bringing more tolerance, acceptance and understanding into the world.