Vel Vel Festival

Vel Vel 

Bandel, Hoogly District

According to Hindu mythology, Goddess Parvati presented the Vel to her son Murugan as an embodiment of her Shakti or power in order to vanquish the evil asura Soorapadman. According to the Skanda Purana, in the war between Murugan and Soorapadman, Murugan used the Vel to defeat all the evil forces of Soorapadman. When a complete defeat for Soorapadman was imminent, the asura transformed himself into a huge mango tree to evade detection by Murugan. But not fooled by Asura's trick, Murugan hurled his Vel and split the mango tree into two halves, one becoming a rooster and the other a peacock. Henceforth, the peacock became his vahana or mount and vehicle and the rooster became the emblem on his battle flag.

The alternative interpretation of Vel is that it is a symbol of wisdom/knowledge. It symbolically shows that wisdom/knowledge should be sharp as in the Vel's tip, broad as in the vel's breadth and run deep as in the height. Only such wisdom can destroy the darkness of ignorance

~ info source Wikipedia