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Mythological stories and ritual beliefs are one of the most interesting part of Indian culture . Those based on books may or may not provide evidence to such incident but is very deeply connected to the roots of culture.
One such story is based on a religious culture where people do not eat warm food for a day . The food is prepared the previous day and the is eaten on the following day without microwaving or heating the food . It is eaten in its cold state .

why so?
You must be wondering why do people do so ?
This is called as Sitla puja or one may call it as Basida which means cold food (not freshly prepared),

Many caste and sub caste follow this ritual . It comes somedays after holi (festival of colours ) and is always done once a year .
The reason to which is based on a mythological story!
I know you are eager to know the story so let’s get started with it .

The mythological story

As per the story there were , 2 sisters who roamed on a village asking for some cold food but no one could provide as everyone ate only warm food , there was one poor artist’s house in the village , who could serve raw rotis , some cold foods along with some cold drinking water .
The sisters got happy, ate the food and left the village .
After few hours , the whole village got into a fire , everyone’s house were burnt except the poor artist.
The villagers thought it is the poor artist who has put up a fire in the whole village and therefore, asked him to face the consequences.
Later on he told that he has done nothing and he knows nothing about the fire . He also mentioned that he was all day in his home , 2 sisters also came to his house searching for cold food .
The villagers then understood that it was some god presence in the form of human figure. Some villagers went to find the 2 sisters but couldn’t find them , a old woman then told the villagers that she was told to inform the villagers to eat atleast one day cold food .

From then , its a following to eat cold food for a day . The use of warm electronics like Grinders, stove , microwave are prohibited for a day . So , that is the reason behind eating cold food .

Culture

Every caste follow this day in their own manner , In my caste , the family wakes up early in the morning and takes a bath from cold water and get dressed to visit temple for puja before sunrise. Generally we go at 5:00 am in the morning. We offer the statue with cold food and cold water , bow down to them , chant some mantras , seek the blessing of god and return to our home .

The whole day we eat previous day prepared foods or foods that don’t require use of Stoves , microwave etc.
we enjoy this day to the fullest.
We don’t lit diya’s or any fire objects . This signifies the day of coldness and blessings.

After visiting the temple , the grandmothers or the elders of the family sit in front of a tree along with their whole family and the grandmothers recites the story of the 2 sisters, which I explained above .

Today is the day where we eat cold food , the above picture is of my elders reciting the story at 5:30 in the morning. This remarks my culture and follow of traditions though being in a modern world.
I believe you should never loose your roots, everything has its own importance, therefore maintain a balance in all aspects of your life .

What do you think?
What are your views on it?

THANK YOU FOR READING TILL THE END
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING IT!