Praying for Surya

Today was spent almost entirely at two different temples. This morning after breakfast, my host mother and I left the apartments in the car and drove about one block to the nearby temple. When we arrived inside, there was already a puja going on and so we left to go to another temple nearby to check the time schedule for that one. It ended up that we could go back and participate in the end of the other puja, and then come back at 2:00 p.m. for this one.
The next few days are the Puja holidays, and everyone is out buying a whole lot of flowers, sweets, fruits, mango leaves and ghee to offer up to the Gods. I don't know too much about what's going to happen, but I do know that both of my host parents will do pujas in their offices, in fact, we are going to my host father's office here in Coimbatore at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning for an office puja before driving to Mysur (spelling?), a city about an hour away, where my host father's company has a factory. We will be staying overnight there and getting up early again for another puja in that office.
Today though was a different kind of puja- today the position of Saturn changed and the planet is now facing a new star. My host mother and I spent the full day at the temple because the star that Saturn has turned to face is my host brother's birth star! The significance of this movement is that now, the people with that birth star will start a period of both good and bad things happening to them until the planet moves on. We spent the afternoon at a specific temple (after an hour or so at the other temple) so that my host mother (and the MANY) other people there could pray for their loved one's good moments.
The ceremony started out with the Ayers (priests) getting the Gods ready for the puja. They decorated coconuts with leaves, flowers and colorful pieces of cloth and had them all on display on a table above a fire pit. The first half of the puja, the ayers were chanting and would add things to the fire to keep it burning- things like ghee, small sticks, spices, and finally a wrapped bundle of goodies to offer to the Gods. It reminded me a lot of camping, but it was SO different! The fire pit was made from bricks decorated with flowers and colored powders, and because of all the spices being added, the smoke smelled different too.
The second part of the puja was all about the God Shiva's statue. Inside the small room, the statue was bare of it's usual adornment of flowers, as we all watched, the Ayer inside dumped liquid after liquid over the head of the statue- starting with pure oil and going to milk, honey, curd, sugarcane juice, a crushed banana mixture, ghee, and coconut milk, all with a rinse of water in between. The crowd was insane! There were hundreds of people there, and everyone wanted to see what was happening as the different liquids were poured over the God's head! I felt like I was in the middle of the mosh pit at a concert with all of the swarming, pushing people, the cramped space, the loud drums and horns, the bells, and of course the smothering smoke that was coming from the dying fire. Since my host mother and I had gotten there early, we had a good view of the happenings from the floor and I was happy to not have to deal with all of the shoving masses, although my butt hurt pretty bad and my legs were cramped up after sitting on the floor for three and a half hours straight...
After that puja was finished, the God was unveiled completely covered in flowers and a meal was served on banana leaves for a VERY late lunch. My host mother and I ate on the temple floor, talking to some little kids nearby who wanted to know who I was before we left and went home- On the way I saw a PUG!!! It made me break down in tears of course but I still have a very strong intention of walking up the street sometime to see if it's friendly! It was the first I've seen since being here, and maybe the ONLY in Coimbatore because my host mother had also never seen a pug here! It was SOOOO cute! (But not as cute as LOLITA!) :)