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Times Life
Times Life
Aishwarya Kapoor

Amavasya and the New Moon: What Hindu Ritual About Ancestors Teaches the Living About Grief

The night that asks nothing of the sky

The new moon gives you nothing to look at. That is the first thing Amavasya asks of you: to sit with a sky that offers no light back. Every other Hindu observance has something to orient toward, the full Kartik moon, the rising sun at Makar Sankranti, the lamps of Diwali. Amavasya removes the object. The darkness is not a backdrop. It is the condition.

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