Bad luck, brother - it's the wrong time of year for a Gujarati wristband
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Your support makes all the difference.There has been panic in the Indian state of Gujarat after rumours that a holy thread worn around the wrist for protection by Indian men had been tied at the wrong time mistakenly this year and would bring bad luck instead of good.
There has been panic in the Indian state of Gujarat after rumours that a holy thread worn around the wrist for protection by Indian men had been tied at the wrong time mistakenly this year and would bring bad luck instead of good.
One man is believed to have died of a heart attack in the town of Baroda as he scrabbled to get the rakhi, or holy thread, off his wrist.
Thousands of men have torn off the rakhis after rumours that one young man had been killed in a freak accident minutes after having his rakhi tied at the wrong time, and that a second man was crushed by a truck as he stepped out of his house after getting his tied.
In the state capital of Ahmedabad, police sent speaker-vans on the streets broadcasting messages dispelling the rumours and calling for calm.
The Hindu festival of Rakhsha Bandhan celebrates the love between brother and sister. Across India, women tie rakhis around the wrists of their brothers. While the thread is supposed to bring luck to the man who wears it, it also symbolises his obligation to protect his sister.
The festival, which is held according to the Hindu calendar, fell on 30 August this year. The rumours say the auspicious time for tying rakhis fell between 9.06pm on the 30th and 7am on the 31st. Any tied before or after would "devastate you and your family".
Traditionally, rakhis are a thread, but today the rich often give an ornate bracelet. Others use gold and silver threads.
Rakhis are considered powerful. Traditional has it that Alexander the Great survived his invasion of India only because his wife approached the Hindu king Porus and tied a rakhi around his wrist, asking him to protect her and Alexander. Porus spared Alexander in battle.
The great 20th-century Bengali poet Rabindrantah Tagore helped popularise rakhis not only for brothers and sisters but between close friends and neighbours, to symbolise the need for society to co-exist as brothers and sisters. Today Indian women also send rakhis to men as a way of saying, "Let's just be friends".
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