6 Indian Customs To Know Before Travelling To India

The Best Way To Tour India Is To Know India

  India, a place unlike any other, presents a wide diversity of beauty, tastes, colours and sounds. It is quite important to know a place or acquaint its culture before visiting. To help first-timers get familiar with the country when travelling to India’s peppy cities and alluring locations, here are some of the things one should know to make their first-time travel to this glamorous country a plain sail.    

• GARLANDS

  Image Courtesy: taj.tajhotels.com   For Indians, a guest is equivalent to God as there is a famous saying “Athithi Devo Bhava”. Garlanding the guests and applying a red mark on the foreheads is a usual way of welcoming the guests. Garlanding is a way of expressing happiness on the arrival of the guests and endorsing the guest’s importance in their life.      

• TEMPLE ETIQUETTES

  Image Courtesy: garygitchel.wordpress.com   In India, it is a usual practice to take off shoes before entering a place of worship. India is a land where four major religions originated; here religious sentiments are of immense importance. Usually, the shoulders and lower part of the body are kept covered when visiting a religious site even if you are not a believer. Also, leather goods of any kind (belts, bags, etc.) should be avoided.      

• HANDS AND FOOT

  Image Courtesy: jansatta.com   In Hinduism, every body part has its own significance and there is a hierarchy to the parts. The head is considered superior to the rest of the body. Bending down and touching elder’s feet are considered as a sign of obedience. Usually, shoes are taken off before entering the house.      

• FOOD CONSUMPTION

  Image Courtesy: YouTube Indians usually follow the custom of consuming food with their hand mostly the right hand and for this reason, a common practice is to wash hands before eating especially when you are visiting someone’s house or you are at an ashram. Whether you choose to eat with your hands or with a spoon, washing hands is a must.      

• CLOTHES

  Image Courtesy: Quora   Taking a trip to India, one needs to take good care of the clothes he/she is wearing especially when visiting monuments or historical sites as some of these do not allow people with exposing clothes. Foreigners can even try some traditional clothes to give themselves a different look.      

• DEITIES

  Image Courtesy: wordzz.com   Almost every person in India follows some or the other religion, be it Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity or Islam. Don’t get surprised when you find pictures of one or many deities in the houses.     So, visit India and experience a little bit of everything and everyone, be it a melting pot of languages like Marathi, Tamil, Bengali or geographic diversity like the beaches of Goa & the peaks of the Himalayas or the mix of religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Experience it and you know it!     For more interesting articles, follow our online magazine BananiVista. Do “Like” and “Follow” us on Facebook.