Rakshya bandan

Rakshya bandanRaksha Bandhan' is a famous festival of Hindus. It is also called the festival of 'Rakhi'. It falls on Purnima or full moon day in the month of Shravan according to Hindu Calendar. It is celebrated across all over India. 

'Raksha' means protection and 'Bandhan' means bound. Thus 'Raksha Bandhan' means the 'Bond of Protection'. On this day, Sisters tie a special band on their brothers' wrist as a mark of affection. This thread is called the 'Rakhi'. The brothers in return takes a lifelong vow to protect their sisters. On the day of Raksha Bandhan, brothers and sisters reaffirm their pious bonds of affection. Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial exogamy, in which a 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 territorial exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony.^[27][28] Their brothers, who typically live with the 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.Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through the tying of rakhi amulets, which have cut across caste and class lines,and Hindu and Muslim divisions.In some communities or contexts, other figures, such as a matriarch, or a person in authority, can be included in the ceremony in ritual acknowledgement of their benefaction.Raksha Bandhan is also celebrated by Hindu communities in other parts of the world. Although rooted in Hindu culture, the festival has no traditional prayers unambiguously associated with it. The religious myths claimed for it are disputed, and the historical stories associated with it considered apocryphal by some historians.