______***______
Audio Version
To listen to the audio version of the following text, please click here
Yesterday was a very auspicious day for Hindus & Jains of India. Every year, this day (third day of the brighter fortnight of the Vaishakh Month in lunar calendar) is celebrated as Akshaya Tritiya (shortened as Akkha Teej in Rajasthan) in India. This day is considered as the most auspicious, fortunate and sacred for all important decisions and activities. According to mythological scriptures, all good work done on this day will bring in eternal (i.e. akshaya) rewards forever.
As this festival testifies this date to bring in good luck and fortune for all activities, no astrological consultation is needed to initiate any new beginnings. Thus many big projects are inaugurated on this day, properties and gold are purchased, house warming ceremonies, wedding functions and inaugural functions for new business openings too are held on this day.
Varshi Tapa In Jains
In Jainism, this day commemorates the breaking of a one year long fast by their first Tirthankar with the sugarcane juice. So many followers follow an alternate day fast continuously for one year and then collectively break their fast on this day. So it becomes a big event when several people gathers to break their one year fasting and others who help them break their fast. This is considered very auspicious and a sacred act and is a very important event in Jainism.
Child Marriages
Rajasthan is infamous for child marriages. Despite it was held illegal several years back, a number of child marriages happen on this day in rural Rajasthan. Every year, Government run special campaigns and makes special efforts to stop child marriages on this festival. But people are adamant to organize child marriages to make the best of this auspicious festival and they even administer growth hormones like Oxytocins to brides to make them look older and thus deceive the authorities. Calling it a “heinous social practice”, Ministry of Women & Child Development issued a directive to several State authorities a week before this day. Despite of continued Government efforts, there is an increase in the no. of cases registered for child marriages. Every year, about 1.5 million under-aged girls are married off in India (according to UNICEF data).
Investment In Gold
Buying gold is a popular investment on this day which many families do it ritually. Mostly, people love to buy gold jewelries on this day as they get the dual benefit of jewelry as well as appreciation in investment.
This year, on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, the government also issued Sovereign Bond 2018-2019-Series-1 scheme. Sovereign Gold Bonds are issued by the RBI (Indian central bank) on behalf of the Government of India. Capital gains on SGB are tax free and these also earn an interest of 2% p.a. apart from the appreciation in price of gold.
Another option to buy gold is to buy Gold ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) and collect gold units in your demat account.
But this year, this festival was said to be falling on some unique astrological position which occurred first time in 500 years. And due to the planetary position (esp. of the Shani / Saturn), people were advised against buying gold and to buy silver instead.
So there wasn’t much interest in buying gold yesterday. Aside astrological advice, returns from gold in the past 3-5years have not been very encouraging. No surprises that gold prices remain flat yesterday. Gold prices went up by only Rs. 30 to Rs. 32,380 per 10g at the bullion market in Delhi. This too can be explained by the ritual of token buying by jewelers on this day and demand of jewelry owing to numerous marriage functions on this festival. But there wasn’t any significant movement in the gold price.
But financial experts advise a small allocation towards gold as a hedge towards volatility and uncertainty.
The overall trend in gold prices is possibly set towards an upward bias, said Dinesh Rohira, Founder & CEO, 5nance.com
Mene 24K Gold & Platinum Investment Jewelry
If you are thinking to purchase some gold then here’s a good place to get 24K pure Mene Gold. If you use my referral code to sign up, you will be rewarded a credit of $5 on signing up and $50 on your first purchase.
Isn’t that more than a cherry on the cake? Happy Akkha Teej to you! 😊