Vasant Panchami is also denoted as Basant Panchami or Shree Panchami is Hindu Festival celebrating Saraswati and also foretells the arraival of spring season . In 2009 the Vasant Panchami is on January 31st . It is also the day when Saraswathi Devi puja is performaed in North and Eastern Parts in India. Vasant Panchami is celebrated mainly in North India, Vasanth season is the period between sun’s entry into the Meena Rashi and its entrance into the Vrishaba Rashi. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that ‘Vasanth’ is one of his forms.
Traditionally during Vasant Panchami children are taught to write their first words; brahmins are fed; ancestor worship (Pitr-tarpan) is performed; the god of love Kamadeva is worshipped; and Students place their books before the idol and worship her to bless them with knowledge and power. The family priest guide the youngest child in writing the first alphabet,symbolising an initiation into the realm of knowledge. The color yellow also plays an important role in this festival, in that people usually wear yellow garments, Saraswati is worshipped dressed in yellow, and yellow sweets are consumed within the families.
Also known as Saraswati Puja (Bengali: shoroshshoti puja), shoroshshoti puja is celebrated in Nepal, India and Bangladesh to invoke wisdom and consciousness in human beings. Apart from wisdom, Saraswati is also the deity for fine and performing arts. In West Bengal saraswati puja is celebrated in Hindu households and also in schools and colleges. Bengali men are usually dressed in traditional paijama and punjabi. Women are dressed in yellow (basanti) coloured sari.
According to history, Goddess is the daughter of Lord Shiva and Goddess Durga. It is believed that devotees, those soulfully pray her are bestowed with powers of speech, wisdom and learning. Her appearance very well explains her nature. She is always dressed in white symbolizing the purity and the light of knowledge. White Swan is her vahana representing Sattwa Guna or purity and discrimination. Each of her arm represents a thing. The four arms represents four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has vedas or sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus in the second. With her other two hands she plays the string instrument called the Veena.
Another legend says that Saraswati literally means ‘the flowing one‘and hence she represents a river and the deity presiding over it. The `flowing one’ in allegorical sense may mean speech also; perfect speech which denotes intelligence. Puranic legends identified her with Speech and said that Saraswati is the consort of Lord Hayagriva, and should not be confused with the Brahma’s wife Saraswathi. Hayagriva represents the essence of the Vedas, and she is the sound of this essence.She is dressed in white (sign of purity) and rides on a white goose (swan). The swan is known for its pecliar characteristic of being capable of separating water from milk, indicating that we should possess discrimination in separating the bad from the good. The seat being a lotus or peacock implies that the teacher is well-established in the subjective experience of truth. When sitting on a peacock she reminds us that wisdom suppresses ego.
Like Brahma, she is not worshipped much in temples. However, every year Saraswathi Pooja (Navarathiri ) is celebrated by people all over India, be it students, workers, craftsmen, businessmen offering their prayers for a successful and fruitful year. However, Saraswathi does have a temple in Koothanur in Tanjavur district (Tamil Nadu).There is an important Saraswati Temple in Basar at a distance of 40 km from Nizamabad in Adilabad District, Andhra Pradesh on the banks of Godavari River.