America: Festivals of September

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Festivals of September

FESTIVALS OF SEPTEMBER

Janmashtami, Paryushan, Enkutatash, Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Ganesh Chaturathi, Mabon/AutumnEquinox/Freyfaxi, Dussehra/Durga/ Gowri Puja, Yom Kippur, Sukkot

Greetings (http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Index_Greetings.asp )

This is essentially a month of reflection in general, and the three festivals stand out to expresses our innate desire to reflect, measure and fine tune our own spirituality, they are; Paryushan, Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan. Every festival indeed is a reflection.

I have some good articles on each one of the festivals, God willing, time permitting, I shall post these on the websites :
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/ and http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/ by this weekend.

May you all be blessed and refresh yourselves in your mind and body and be a good human being to one and all.

Mike Ghouse.

http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Images_Holidays/2007_SeptemberFestivals.asp
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Janmashtami - September 3
Celebration of the birthday of Krishna; features a day-long fast broken at midnight, the time of Krishna's birth.

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Paryushan - September 2-9
A week of reflection on the past year and starting the new year with new goals

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Enkutatash - September 11
Coptic, Ethiopian Christians
Ethiopian New Year; traditions include a family meal, singing, and visiting friends

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Ramadan - September 13 - October 12
y month in which the Qur'an was revealed; a time of worship, Qur'an reading, charitable acts, and individual reflection and purification.
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Rosh Hashanah - September 13 - 14
Jewish New Year, anniversary of the creation of the world; a 2-day observance (begins at sundown on the 13th).
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Ganesh Chaturathi - September 15
Celebrates Ganesha, the elephant-headed god and destroyer of obstacles.
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Pagan/ Wiccan/ HeathenSeptember 21
Mabon/Autumn Equinox/Freyfaxi
Pagan observance of the second harvest festival; a time to give thanks and look inward. To mark the Fall Harvest, Heathens celebrate a festival for the God Freyr and the Goddess Freya.
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Dussehra/Durga Puja - September 15
Festival celebrating the victory of good over evil; honors the ten-armed goddess of fertility and the third embodiment of the Devi, Durga
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Jewish
Yom Kippur - September 22
Day of Atonement; humans' fates for the coming year are sealed by God (begins at sundown the night before).

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Sukkot - September 27 - October 3
Feast of Booths; harvest festival commemorating the divine protection of Israelites during their 40-year wandering in the desert (begins at sundown September 26).

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Mike Ghouse
SPEAKER THINKER WRITER
(214) 325-1916
Foundation For Pluralism
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/

If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each
one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

THE SEVEN COMANDMENTS OF PLURALISM

1) We shall not ridicule anyone that God has created.
It amounts to ridiculing their Creator.

2) We shall not attempt to undermine the divinity of other faiths.
It amounts to arrogance, a quality to get rid of, and become a righteous person.

3) We shall not commit another sin in attempting to enforce that one religion is better
than another by claiming that we have the best solutions, or hinting any superiority.

4) We shall not blame any religion or a group for the acts of the individuals
just because they belong to that faith or group.

5) Let’s learn to differentiate the wrong doers from the religion,
while appreciating the goodness of each religion.

6) We shall strive to rid ourselves of greed, anger, hate, haughtiness,
ill-will, pettiness, malice, and ignorance to achieve spirituality.

Our salvation, our peace of mind, our nirvana, our Moksha, our mukti, our freedom
and our joining the kingdom of God is directly dependent on living a prejudice free life and a life as described in the 6th commandment. Every religion frees us from the negative engagements. When we truly believe in the ultimate oneness of God and the ultimateoneness of mankind, we have accepted God’s greatness and parity of human beings.

The world is a better place today because of the spirituality, without which there would be chaos.All the religions are on the same side; that of goodness for mankind.

If you wish to join the discussion group:
Please send an email toFoundationforpluralism-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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Committment

Personally, I am committed to promoting goodwill amongst people, I believe knowledge leads to understanding, and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of a different point of view.

If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Ray Bradbury "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy... Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.… Whatever you can do or dream that you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

and this "If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

Dr. Abdul Hamid Abusulayman "There is a clear distinction between doubts and problems. Doubts provoke obstruction, frustration and discouragement, where as problems inspire motivation, action and diligence

Mike Ghouse " Whatever you do in life, do it wholeheartedly, there is joy in it for every one around including ourselves"

Taking a principled stand

Please be aware that I will do my best to take a principled stand on Justice. Which simply means no matter who, what or where there is injustice, I will speak out.

Most of our policies are based on short sightedness, What is our gain? Who can we please and how can we remain in our power positions? Be it our President, Congressman, Senator or a public officer, I will speak out.

When it comes to other nations, if they are non-inclusive and mistreat any segment of their population, I will speak out.

I will defend the goodness of every religion, religion is the reason we have relative peace in the world, without which it will be chaotic. For the crimes of mankind, let's find the culprit and laser bark at him, and not his family, his race, his ethnicity or his religion.

I am a moderate Republican, and my first loyalty is to democracy before the blinding loyalty to my party.

Obama is the right man in our history for our nation at this time and I have supported him all the way, the more I know about him, the more I feel he is the right man for the job.

My thought process is similar to Obama's. In fact he has used the same words in his speeches that I wrote on my blog a week ahead of him.

ISRAEL & PALESTINE

Thank God, I have no barriers between me and another human being.

Time permitting I want to see all points of view with an open mind, ultimately it is me or you, who is going to feel right or wrong about things and the pangs I will endure for realizing that I believed in the wrong thing.

No Imam, Rabbi, Pundit or Pastor is responsible for my actions and finding the truth is my own responsibility. Watching a Hamas movie does not make me a Hamas supporter or a Zionist movie would make me a Zionist supporter. We need to raise about such petty pegs.

My loyalty is to justice; and not to Israel or Palestine, which means support is based on issues and items and not wholesale blind support or un-support.

We do not have peace in Middleeast because of our loyalties to entities and not Justice. Every one wants peace, but they are not going about the right way.

Speaker and Writer

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator.

He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India, Multiculturism, Terrorism, Peace, Politics and Civic issues. He co-chairs the center for interfaith inquiry of the Memnosyne Foundation and presides the Foundation for Pluralism. He is the president of World Muslim Congress a think tank with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world and vice-Versa.

His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Web sites and Blogs listed at his personal web site www.MikeGhouse.net . He has authored over 600 articles on Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India and peace.

His life mission is to open people’s hearts and minds towards fellow beings by mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill. He is a peace maker and an educator with two Master degrees and working on his doctorate in Psychology. He has two books on the horizon ; Basic Islam- everything you want to know about Islam and Pluralism, a text book on Pluralism 101.

Mike is a Neighborhood Commissioner at the City of Carrollton, and a Board Member of Dallas Peace Center. He is an Ambassador for Peace for the Universal Peace Federation and a member of the International leadership council. He has initiated the annual events like the Annual Thanksgiving Celebrations in its 12th year, Unity Day USA in its 5th year, Holocaust and Genocides, event just finished its 2nd Annual event. Mike Ghouse Cricket Gold cup and several other initiatives were taken. He was Past President of Indian Creek HOA and North Texas Cricket Association and has been a member of several Boards.

Mike is a Dallasite for three decades and Carrollton is his home town.

For a full still to be updated bio: http://www.mikeghouse.net/ProfileMikeGhouse.asp

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Festivals of September

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