October to Mid-November - Bhai Dooj

Bhai Dooj – celebrated end of October to mid November

Hindu festival celebrating sibling connections

Bhai Dooj is an important Hindu festival when women pray to the gods for long and prosperous lives for their brothers. It is celebrated two days after the popular festival of Diwali.

Known in different parts of India, as well as Nepal and Bangladesh, as Bhau Beej, Bhai Teeka, or Bhai Phota. The festival is very similar to Raksha Bandhan, as it celebrates the love between a brother and sister.

While sisters perform traditional rituals and pray for their brothers’ well being, brothers vow to protect sister. The underlying spirit of piety, love, and care is a unified notion that resonates throughout us all.

Rabindranath Tagore and the Partition of Bengal

Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor of Asian Studies at Columbia University, describes Rabindranath Tagore's rakhi-bandhan ceremonies, inspired by the Bhai Dooj ritual, which were organized to protest the 1905 Partition of Bengal

In 1905 Rabindranath Tagore extended the symbolism of Brother's Second, a ritual of bonding between brothers and sisters that is celebrated right after the Pujas have concluded, to evoke friendship between Hindus and Muslims: members of both communities would tie red threads of brotherhood on each others' wrists.