This falls on the full moon day of the month of Sravan (August-September). It is an important Hindu festival. Hindus wear a new holy thread and offer libations of water to the ancient Rishis on this day.

Recitation of the Vedas on this great day is highly beneficial. Raksha Bandhan festival is also known as Upakarmam, and is specially sacred to the Brahmins who have been invested with the sacred thread. When the Brahmin boy is invested with this holy thread, Symbolically his third eye or the eye of wisdom is opened. This festival of Raksha Bandhan reminds the wearer of the sacred thread of its glorious spiritual significance. Brahmins also offer libations with water to their ancestors to whom they owe their birth and to the Rishis to whom they are indebted for their spiritual knowledge and the Vedas themselves. The true Hindu never forgets his benefactors!

Rakshabandhan or Rakhi the more popular of the two festivals is a Hindu sister's day when brothers and sisters reaffirm their bonds of affections.

Sisters tie colourful threads or rakhis on their brother's wrists. The brothers in turn promise to protect their sisters and give them gifts. Raksha Bandhan is celebrated in different forms in different areas and it is also known by the names like rakhi, rakhri and saluno.

Rakshabandhan is a very special Indian festival, the celebration of the special bond between a brother and a sister. Sisters tie a special band on their brothers' wrist on the day of Rakhi as a mark of affection. This thread, which pulsates with sisterly love and sublime sentiments, is rightly called the 'Rakhi'.

It is a way of telling your brother that you'll never forget how he teased you about everything, yet fought with those who spoke a single word against you and how you bid him farewell with a smile, and only he saw those tear drops in your eyes.

The practice of tying thread was prevalent among the Rajputs and our history is full of instances related to the significance of this tradition. At the time of war when the brave Rajput soldiers prepared to go to the battlefield, the women folk followed the ritual of tying a thread around their wrist after applying a dash of vermilion powder on their forehead. This was considered a sign of good omen and the ladies believed that it would protect their men from the enemy's blow and bring them victory. Today children and women all around the country filling the soilders with the zest to protect them against the dangers of the enemy tie Rakhi on the wrists of soldiers.