Nepali American Center (NAC) presents its monthly religious and social program at Radheyshyam Temple on first Saturday of each month since 2006. This monthly ritual of Nepali community in Chicago has now becomes its culture. Each and every Nepali living in Chicago are aware of this monthly event. The program covers deity worship, bhajan-kirtan, Aarati and vegetarian Prasad (launch). The prasad are prepared by a number of families turn by turn each month. During the event, children are also gathered to learn about Nepalese religious, social and cultural values presented to them by NAC volunteers.Every month of February, the Goddess of knowledge, wisdom and science Saraswati is worshipped and prayed to. Each year, children also present Saraswati Bandana, a twelve names slokas (verses) of Goddess Saraswati. This year, there were nearly fifty children participating in chanting the Saraswati bandana. They first practiced at home, learning how to coordinate with each other from an online virtual session, rehearsed at the temple basement together and then presented jointly at the temple hall in front of their parents and all the devotees present on the day. Their presentation and smiles on their faces was mesmerizing to everyone. It was worth mentioning their discipline, their enthusiasm and their obedience to the Hindu rituals of going round (clockwise) to the deities at the temple, bowing to the deities and lining up as per the instructions of the volunteers to receive blessings from Pandit ji at the end before going back to the basement for Prasad launch. NAC executive team are very proud of our children for their grand performance. All of us must be very happy to see them curious to learn the values found in the rituals and mantras of our culture. Given the opportunity, there is no doubt our children can learn things of values from a society beyond the formal education they receive at educational institutions. Such values are rarely taught at such places, and they rarely get a chance to know beyond the worldly ways to make a living from skills and knowledge learned from formal education. A huge thanks to all the volunteers and their hard work in conducting the program and explaining the meaning of Saraswati Bandana to the children. This event is a great success.
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