Continuation of the 5 Major Religions

    Today in class we picked up where we left on Hinduism. Instead of priests, Hindus have gurus. Gurus teach and master specific traditions. Almost all of the gurus come from the Brahman caste. Throughout a year, Hindus celebrate 32-34 holidays. The major ones are: Maha Shivarati, Gudi Padwa, Guru Purnima, and Vijayadashami. Maha Shivarati is held on March 12 and is a night of fasting to show devotion to Shiva. Gudi Padwa is on March 23 and is the day that they celebrate how Brahaman created the world. Guru Purnima is the day that they celebrate their gurus and is the day that one of the writers of their sacred scriptures was born. Vijayadashami is held on October 15 and is a day of celebrating good conquering evil. Even though Hindus believe in many different gods, there are fights in India between Hindus and Muslims. The fights are back and forth and is all in "revenge" for something that happened in the past. After Hinduism, we started talking about Buddhism. Buddhism is based off of the practice teachings of Siddhartha Guatama, commonly known as Buddha. Buddha was a teacher who lived between the fourth and sixth century. He shared his incites to help the beings and suffering of others. Buddhism is the fastest growing religion in the world and has about 350 to 550 million followers. Buddhism has such a large range of followers because they don't have certain rules like having no other gods before Buddha and they don't claim to be number one. Most of these Buddhists can be found in India and Asia. They have practices of mindfulness and meditation.