Things I learned because of the three events

We successfully carried out three very important events in a little over two weeks in our house. (Apparently the closest anyone came to pulling that off was my friend Loveen's family who had his sister's wedding in Tirupathi, his wedding in Vijayawada and their combined reception in Hyderabad on three consecutive days.) Being very sacred events, we spent a lot of time learning and performing religious ceremonies. A few interesting things I got to learn as a result was:

a) The proper way to take "teertham" (holy water) is to cup your palm with your thumb separating your index finger and the rest and receive the water in the bowl formed between those fingers.

b) After drinking this water it's common for people to rub their hands dry on the back of their heads. It's a very common and a very wrong thing to do. One is not supposed to rub their hands on their heads after drinking teertham.

c) While worshiping Hanuman, one is not supposed to touch his feet. Hanuman suppresses Shani (a God associated with bad omens) with his feet and thus, you don't want to inadvertently touch Shani while worshipping Hanuman.

d) After having one's Thread Ceremony, one is supposed to perform the Sandhyavandanam thrice a day. And if one spends a day and a half without performing the Sandhyavandanam, then the whole process of having had one's Thread ceremony is negated, he is removed from the ranks of the twice-born and one needs to undergo a fresh thread ceremony.

e) The reason for the Sandhyavandanam is that every morning, while the Sun tries to come up, two rakshasas try to keep him down. So you take a handful of water, utter the Gayathri Mantra and then energize this water with the power of the Gayathri and release it into the ground. When everyone (all the Brahmins I suppose) releases this water, the two rakshasas (who are immortal) are stunned and sent into a faint. The Sun then rises. We need to do this everyday so the Sun and rise everyday. So all once borns, remember to thank your twice born brethren, we keep the Sun shining :)