In India the Sharad Purnima or Kojaagari Purnima or Kumar Purnima is a harvest Festival celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu lunar month of Ashvin (September-October).
The rainy season is over and the brightness of the full moon brings special joy.
At night, goddess Laxmi is worshiped and night vigil is observed. According to a folk-tale, once a king fell on evil days, and was in great financial straits, but then his queen observed this fast and night vigil. Currently, this full moon comes during Sharad ritu (season ) of the year and hence it is called Sharad Pornima or Sharad Poonam.
In Maharashtra we observe Kojagiri as Kojagiri Laxmi Puja. Devotees believe that Goddess Lakshmi keeps moving from place to place asking ‘Kojagarti’ (who is awake?). The Goddess blesses those whom she finds awake. Kojagiri Lakshmi Puja is a big event at Kolhapur Mahalaxmi temple. We celebrate our Kojagiri with playing "Antakshari" .Main attraction of Kojagiri is "Masala Dudh".It is served to everybody after 12 midnight. And most good thing is that, eldest child of the family is honored on this day. So mother do aarti of elder son/ daughter on this day.
Following is the recipe for 'Masala Dudh':
- 4 cups full cream milk
- 8 tsp sugar
- 5 almond finely sliced
- 5 Cashews finely chopped
- 5-6 Saffron threads
- 4 cardamom pods crushed to coarse powder
- little nutmeg grated
Procedure:
- In a thick bottom pan heat milk till its half the quantity, and keep stirring.
- Just before turning off the gas add sugar, almonds cashews, cardamom, nutmeg. boil for another 5 mins.
- Cool the drink, serve cold. ENjoy :)
