The literal meaning of Annakut or Annakoot is "mountain of food",This day chappan bhog is offered, it symbolises an offering of food to God and the love and devotion that has gone into preparing it.After Diwali, the locals celebrated Annakoot and Govardhan Puja. During the Annakoot festival, the temples like Kashi Vishwanath, Maa Annapurna and Bara Ganesh were decorated with the replicas made of sweets, especially laddoos. It is a tradition to have 56 different types of sweets to offer the deities.
Annakut is the day of having collective food or in gathering. In this, whole family and society people prepare offerings for lord in a common kitchen and later take it in form of Prasaad. In almost all the temples of Kashi, there is a tradition of celebrating Annakut in Kartik Masa. In Vishwanath temple of Kashi, delicious food items, Shivalaya of ladoos are made on this day.
The legend behind this festival is that when the people of Vrindavan use to perform yajna and made holy offerings to please Lord Indra for prosperous rain and crop, Sri Krishna recommended them to offer prayers to holy hill Goverdhan instead as it hid valuable seeds, medicenes etc. in its lap. Agreeing to His advice they did so, which in turn furied Lord Indra. It is then that he held the holy mountain of Govardhan for seven days on his little finger to protect the people of Vrindavan from the rage of lightening and rainfall of Lord Indra.
Annakut is the day of having collective food or in gathering. In this, whole family and society people prepare offerings for lord in a common kitchen and later take it in form of Prasaad. In almost all the temples of Kashi, there is a tradition of celebrating Annakut in Kartik Masa. In Vishwanath temple of Kashi, delicious food items, Shivalaya of ladoos are made on this day.
In the temples in Mathura and Nathadwara, the idols of the deities are given milk bath, are dressed in shining attires with lots of ornaments. After the offering of prayers, sweets are raised in the form of a mountain before the deities as ‘Bhog’ and after that the devotees approach the mountain of Food in order to take prasad from it.
