Housewarming Inytes

There is much auspicious energy that comes with occupying a new living space as an abode, and many cultures around the world celebrate this fact by celebrating the family that has purchased or built their new home in order to settle down into their own place. Take a look at our Housewarming Inytes that you can send so easily to those you want to celebrate this occasion with you.

Baby Shower Inytes

Anticipating the arrival of a bundle of joy is all the reason you need to celebrate a Baby Shower. And you’re in luck, because our bright and cheerful Baby Shower Inytes have the sweetest images and cutest themes to begin setting the atmosphere for this celebration.

Pooja Inytes

Our Pooja Inytes cover a couple of different kinds of poojas that are integral to the lives of many Indians, no matter where in the world that they may be. With this in mind, we have designed these Inytes to appeal to a larger audience, while still depicting very auspicious and religiously significant motifs in order to create visually moving images.

Half Saree Inytes

This important milestone in the life of a young girl as she continues on her journey to become a beautiful woman is celebrated by our vibrant Half Saree Inytes. We wanted our Inytes to capture the free-flowing nature of life, as embodied by this flowing style of attire that signifies the young lady’s blossoming.

Arangetram Inytes

After much committed study and rigorous practice, the Arangetram ceremony is the culmination of this effort as the danseuse takes the stage having graduated from being a pupil to being a master of the dance form she has persevered to learn. To this end, our Arangetram Inytes honor the divine forms that the dancer recreates during her performance, capturing the hearts and minds of her audience by becoming the very embodiment of the art itself.

Cradle Ceremony Inytes

The significance of receiving our name, the most important marker of who we are in the world, is deserving of a ceremonial commemoration indeed. That’s why our Cradle Ceremony Inytes help you organize family members, friends, and all those near and dear to you who must simply share in the joy of your child’s naming.

Bachelor Party Inytes

Often touted as being a young man’s last night as a free man, a Bachelor Party is popularly portrayed in movies as a night of wild abandon, almost as if it were a right that a husband-to-be simply had to enjoy. Thankfully, our Bachelor Party Inytes deal with event in a far classier way, and we are sure you will appreciate us for doing this.

Bachelorette Party Inytes

Much like the Bachelor Party depiction, the Bachelorette Party is portrayed as the last chance for a woman to let herself go before being figuratively tied down, a much-misinformed perspective with regard to the power and individuality of the modern woman, we feel. We trust that you will find our Bachelorette Party Inytes to be far more accurate in the respect that they pay to the modern woman of the 21^st century.

Get Together Inytes

Sometimes it is not all about a festive occasion, or a milestone celebration. Sometimes it’s just about bringing people together to celebrate because you care for them all and want to appreciate them. In this case, our Get Together Inytes are perfect for you to announce your next get together and round up friends and family to have a good time.

Aksharabhyas Inytes

In a country where it is greatly frowned upon to touch a book or a piece of paper with writing on it using your foot, whether on purpose or not, the education that one receives is considered to be a veritable blessing. Our Aksharabhyas Inytes give great reverence to the act of being blessed by Goddess Saraswathi as she bestows upon your child the good will and fortune of a solid foundation of education.

Sweet Sixteen Inytes

A most important marker in the life of a young girl as she turns into a young woman before her family and friends, the Sweet Sixteen celebration is all about this transformation. So too our Sweet Sixteen Inytes are all about your princess taking her first steps in the world as a young, confident and ambitious adult.

Dhoti Ceremony Inytes

An iconic piece of apparel in India, the dhoti is a versatile piece of clothing that an Indian man can wear whether he is working in the fields or is attending prayers at the temple. Having said that, the Dhoti Ceremony marks the opportunity for a young boy to wear his first dhoti, thereby signalling his arrival into adulthood. We have Dhoti Ceremony Inytes that we offer you, having taken the time to meticulously design them so that they resonate with the essence of this transformation.

Annaprasan Inytes

Your baby girl or baby beginning to eat solid foods may not be as big a deal as it is in India, but the Annaprasan ceremony is precisely such a celebration to herald the positive and progressive development of the baby. The Annaprasan is a big deal in India, so we created a range of Annaprasan Inytes for this occasion, to help you announce this celebration with the apt amount of pomp.

Upanayan Inytes

Sometimes communities celebrate the growth of a child to the age where she or he can be regarded as being able to consciously enter into lifelong duties associated with keeping up the traditions of the community. The Upanayan ceremony announces the arrival of young brahmin boys to an age where they are legitimately able to determinedly follow in the footsteps of their predecessors as they carry on the practices of their forebears. And, if you haven’t guessed already, our Upanayan Inytes are designed to be sombre yet celebratory notices of the arrival of your young son to such an important age in his life.

Celebrating Special Occasions

People always look forward to celebrating special occasions in their lives, and also the lives of their near and dear ones. It is a natural thing to want to do. Come to think of it, that is our reason for making this website and providing this kind of service to people all around the world. Our Occasions Inytes cover a broad range of types of celebrations that offer people the chance to invite family and friends and enjoy a special time with them making memories that will live on for many lifetimes. This is our way of helping others shape the course of their lives by celebrating the happy moments.

What is an Occasion?

To get technical about this for a second, an occasion is defined as a special, important event. Being special and important, the need to commemorate their happening or arrival is an all too human need, and with good reason too. Recognizing these events, these times as being important to us and to others, helps us appreciate the absolute gift that our life is. Now, this may prompt you to ask whether or not Birthdays, Weddings and Festivals are “Occasions” or not, and we would simply say yes. But then, we would have to point out that those three categories of occasions deserve to be listed individually for they are generalizations of some of the most notable events in all of our lives.

The “Occasions” category can be considered a general category that takes care of the kinds of occasions that do not neatly fit under any other category, or risk being isolated in the own individual category, which would not make much sense. Within the “Occasions” category of Inytes that we feature, we split them up into Contemporary and Traditional, the former featuring more general occasions like Bachelor Party Inytes and Bachelorette Party Inytes, while the latter features slightly more traditionally Indian occasions like Half Saree Inytes and Dhoti Ceremony Inytes.

A Service for All Occasions

Inytes.com aims to provide exactly this, a service for all occasions. We are constantly evolving and trying to increase the kinds of special occasions that we feature Inytes for on our website because it is our aim to be the kind of service that plays a part, a small yet important part perhaps, of helping bring people together to celebrate those times in their lives that deserve to be celebrated. People all over the world are so diverse in their beliefs, their customs, each and every one of them being important because they give lives meaning. Therefore, celebrating these moments, these events, these occasions, becomes a quintessential part of the human experience as each of us makes our way forward in our lives in this world, a reason to celebrate all its own.

If our lives are journeys, then the occasions in our lives are milestones that tell us where we are headed and how far we have come. Every time we reach one of them, or if someone close to us does so, we owe it to ourselves to pause for a moment and celebrate. With specific reference to Inytes.com, we all owe it to ourselves to select the Occasions Inytes that best convey the message we seek to transmit to our loved ones, as we invite them to join us for some time so that we can all share in the joyful vivaciousness of the occasion.

Many Kinds of Occasions

Special times in our lives fall into several categories, and in spite of the cultural diversity that we see among the masses of people all over the world, we can broadly classify them into a couple of categories. There are occasions we celebrate because we have personally achieved something, such as reaching an age that is considered to be a milestone of passage from childhood to adulthood, a series of celebrations honored by our Sweet Sixteen Inytes, Aksharabhyas Inytes, Half Saree Inytes and Dhoti Ceremony Inytes.

Then there are occasions we celebrate because they bring people together to herald our having achieved a stage in our lives where we become fully fledged members of our community, commemorated by our collection of Housewarming Inytes. Under this kind of Inyte we would also list the Bachelor Party Inytes and Bachelorette Party Inytes that we feature, because more than being about an age that the person has reached, they signify a maturity that has been arrived at that has these special people in our lives looking forward to establishing families by inviting other special people to join them in matrimony to spend the rest of their lives together. Of course, both of these kinds of celebrations are popularly depicted as being the last chance for the young men and women to let loose and get any discombobulating energy out of their systems before settling down.

Inytes for All Occasions

As we have mentioned in another of our blog posts, the Inytes we have listed under Occasion Inytes are those which do not seem to fit very neatly into the other categories that we have defined, although this may change as we update and grow our collections. For the present moment, we have further divided this category into Traditional and Contemporary Occasions Inytes.

The Traditional Occasion Inytes that we have many distinct collections of are immersed in the cultural traditions of India, and while many of them have an element of being associated with the reaching of age milestones, they are really much more significant than this. For example, the Aksharabhyas Inytes honor the celebrating of Aksharabhyas, or the beginning of the stage of formal education that every child reaches as they begin their academic pursuits in the hopes of securing a long and fulfilling professional life later on. On the one hand, it is simply a symbolic gesture of getting a daughter or son to write her or his first letters in the presence of family members and other well-wishers, the ceremony conducted under the watchful auspices of a priest who performs religious rites in the name of Goddess Saraswathi. Yet, this perspective ignores the deep value that an education holds for all Indian families. Education is not just a means to an end in India, it is a blessing that we are fortunate to be able to accept in our lives, hence the importance of such an event even though it may be a complete mystery for the young child undergoing this ritual.

While categorizing Occasions into neat and tidy lists is not as easy as it may appear, at Inytes.com, we are constantly striving to bring you the best Occasions Inytes for you and your family, so that you may be able to celebrate them and create memories to enjoy reminiscing for a very long time to come.

Variations in Celebrating Diwali

While most of us may be familiar with the celebrations of Diwali as depicted in movies and TV shows where the Festival of Lights is said to symbolize the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after defeating the Demon King Ravana who had abducted his wife while they were in exile, different stories provide the backdrop for these stories in different parts of India. Speaking in broad and very general terms, in many of the more Western states of India, Diwali is believed to be the day when Lord Vishnu sends King Bali, a demon king, down to the underworld to rule over it and leave the world alone. Meanwhile, in many South Indian states, Diwali is the day when it is believed that Lord Krishna, the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu, defeats Narakasura. As you can see, while the overall theme of good defeating evil, or light vanquishing the darkness is common to all three of these variations, it is curious that they centre around Lord Vishnu as the central character in the story, whether he appears as himself or as an avatar. For those of you who may not know, Lord Rama is considered to be an avatar of Lord Vishnu.

Five Days of Diwali

Traditionally, the festival of Diwali is celebrated over a period of five days. Again, however, there are many variations about this schedule, particularly in today’s world where the rigours of modern existence do not allow a working individual to take so many days off to celebrate, which is chief among the reasons for any differences that may exist. On the first day of Diwali, known as Dhanteras, homes and business establishments are cleaned thoroughly in order to be more pleasing for the good fortune that they will be inviting into their lives. The second day of Diwali is a follow-up to the first, and the now clean homes are decorated with intricate designs that are drawn on the floor, called Rangoli, using either colored sand or other colored powder. As is the case, traditional designs now appear side by side with more modern ones, though most households do tend to keep their rangolis very simple and in honor of Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, whom they are inviting into their homes.

And so, the third day of Diwali is when most of the activities generally associated with Diwali take place, with families coming together to perform the Lakshmi Puja ritual to honor the goddess. Following this puja and prayer, they sit down to a lavish meal of specially prepared cuisine together, after which it is time to light up the night with fireworks, a symbolic act of this source of light shining brightly enough to obliterate the darkness that may have come to impose upon the lives of people over the course of the previous year.

With the light having driven away the darkness the night before, symbolically or otherwise, the fourth day of Diwali is when people visit each other, whether members of the family or simply good friends, bearing gifts and best wishes with which they share the prosperity that they have received, collectively and mutually, for the coming year. This at last, brings us to the fifth and final day of Diwali when brothers visit their sisters’ families, showering them with gifts and in turn being treated to a sumptuous buffet of treats and fine dishes prepared especially for them by their loving siblings in gratitude.

As mentioned, this could be very different from how you celebrate Diwali, which in fact, presents itself as a fantastic opportunity to have you share with us and the other readers or followers of Inytes.com. Let us know if there is something special that you or your family do that is different what is generally followed as part of Diwali celebrations. Maybe it is a type of food that you prepare, in which case we would love to have you share the recipe for it, or it could well be that you honor other deities as part of your celebrations, inviting a veritable pantheon of Gods and Goddesses into your home to partake in the feast that you have so diligently prepared for them.

And now, it is our turn to share with you the great news that Inytes.com has a selection of Diwali Inytes for you to choose from. With their vibrant, colorful designs, and their well-crafted motifs that are wholly about the Festival of Lights, the Diwali Inytes are an excellent way for you to not only announce to Inytees, your family and friends, that you are planning a grand celebration that they are all welcomed to be a part of, but by being able to track RSVPs and also share vital information like a GPS-compatible map that they can use to arrive at the exact location, you will be able to leverage the use of this handy, and might we say most stylish, party planning tool. So, if you have not already done so, visit Inytes.com and take a look for yourself. We guarantee that you will be enchanted by the Diwali Inytes available for you to use.

With each year that passes, India is plagued by the spectre of Diwali celebrations leading to record levels of pollution being inflicted upon our environment. Whether it is the lingering smoke that chokes the cities, or the heaps of garbage that accumulate because of the use of non-biodegradable materials as part of the decorations used, the problem has become something that has required urgent attention for some time now. Thankfully, there are many initiatives within India that seek to directly address this problem, including an initiative by the Government of India to promote the sale of “green” firecrackers that are more environmentally sound. On this note, the team at Inytes.com thought that we would provide some insights into things that you could do in order to celebrate Diwali in a more ecologically friendly manner, this year, and every year thereafter. Let’s just say we are trying to do every little bit that we can to make sure that we enjoy our celebrating responsibly, and with a view to keeping the world in a state of being that will ensure that we can continue to celebrate for a very long time to come.

An Eco-Friendly Diwali

Before we get down to any suggestions, we would like to state up front that we are well aware that there are many of you out there who have been celebrating a “green” Diwali for a few years, at the very least. If it is not too much trouble, we would love to hear your thoughts on the general guidelines that we will be providing, as well as to hear your own measures to make Diwali a truly environmentally friendly celebration. This knowledge that you share with us will go a long way in helping us all adopt a better, more conscious way to experience Diwali joy without any of the guilt of knowing that we were simultaneously making our environment less liveable. Thank you for sharing with us all, in advance.

“Green” Fireworks

First up, as we mentioned at the beginning of this post, is “green” firecrackers. Being the image that is most associated with celebrating Diwali, and also the number one source of pollution because of their use, firecrackers necessarily must fall in line with modern day trends and be more completely environmentally friendly. Now, there will be some of you who will say, “Well, why not skip firecrackers altogether and be done with this problem?” That is very true, we will certainly admit. Yet, apart from the nostalgia of the visually appealing sparklers and vivid bursts of color in the sky above, there is the belief that before the practice of bursting firecrackers became about showing off with the number or volume of firecrackers that a particular household or group of houses could burst, the more manageable amounts of smoke from the firecrackers used to be somehow beneficial in keeping airborne pathogens and spores at bay, Diwali being at the end of the wet and muggy Monsoon season. Of course, the chemical composition of such firecrackers was also far safer, much before turning the manufacturing of firecrackers into an industry that prized profits above public safety, as well as the safety of what has since been discovered to be deplorable conditions of the workers who assembled them, most of these being children. With this in mind, it may be prudent to question the need for firecrackers for all, and perhaps limiting the use of fireworks to a more centrally located fireworks display for all to witness. So, keep in mind whether you wish to indulge in purchasing fireworks at all, and if you decide to go ahead, make sure that you check if the ones you are purchasing are officially rated as being eco-friendly.

Environmentally Friendly Decorations

A larger number of Diwali decorations are produced using the most simple, large-scale methods and raw materials, and unfortunately for us, these are often not very environmentally friendly. Take for example the abundance of plastic flowers or other decorations made of plastic such as decorative tassels, and know that while the attempted argument for their use is their being reusable, it begs the obvious question: Why are they purchased again and again year after year in such massive quantities? The simple suggestion to address the issue of plastic being used is to switch to natural alternatives. So, that would mean using real flowers for decorations, even pieces of colored fabric that can be arranged or modified to serve as hanging facades, or other forms of decoration. With reference to the fabric, ideally older fabrics that can be repurposed as decorations would make more sense. Similarly, if using diyas as part of your decoration, see if you can get your hands on the more traditional clay version. These are easily biodegradable if they are to be thrown away after sustaining damage, but can easily be reused until they reach this stage.

Alternative Celebration Ideas

At the heart of the matter, think about the way in which you celebrate Diwali. If this Festival of Lights is all about the gifts and the stuff you will give or receive, then see if you can reimagine Diwali to be more eco-friendly. Let these gifts be natural items, or better yet, gifts of food that you can prepare at home, or maybe even get together and make together. Get kids involved in the process. Have them showcase their talents with arts and crafts that incorporate the basic concept of repurposing items that we would normally have discarded without hesitation, and get them to turn them into works of art that their young minds can come up with. The possibilities are endless, but by including your children in making Diwali “green”, you will help build the foundation for an Eco-Friendly Diwali for generations to come, and who knows, for an environmentally friendly way of life in general.

These are just broad guidelines that we offer you, but there are plenty of sources of information like this on the internet that provide ideas about how you can “green” your Diwali. And speaking of green, we ask that you try out our Diwali Inytes from Inytes.com, as an alternative to physical, paper-based cards that you may use as either invitations or simply as greetings. Not only are our Diwali Inytes completely paperless, but they will also help you track RSVPs if you are using them to let people know about a Diwali party that you are hosting, assisting you further with your planning for numbers of attendees so that you can plan accordingly and avoid potential wastage of food and/or other resources. Do give our collection a look-see and start to make Diwali more eco-friendly.

Functionality of Birthday for Him Inytes

We feel the need to reiterate this, but Birthday for Him Inytes are more than just cool looking greeting cards. They provide functional assistance when planning a birthday celebration, allowing you to see who has RSVP’d at the click of a key on your laptop or smartphone, and you can then go and plan accordingly for the appropriate numbers of people to accommodate and entertain at the party that you are throwing.

Also of great potential use, and we say potential because while we do not insist on its use, we do strongly urge it, is the ability to harness the power of maps. You can pinpoint the location of your party on a map that your Inytees can use to easily find it. With the advances in navigation technologies around the world, the ability to integrate maps and use them to not only find locations, but the best way to arrive at these locations based on the volume of traffic by time of day and other variables that are built into these systems. This is something that cannot be overlooked when it comes to its importance in helping party preparations run more smoothly.

Future Birthday for Him Inytes

Inytes.com is always evolving as a service website, bringing you the best Inytes, or in this specific case, Birthday for Him Inytes that you can use to impress your Inytees and help in planning your birthday celebrations. Part of this evolution involves the creating of new, more visually attention-grabbing Inytes that you as customers will look forward to using, to send to your friends and family to let them know that you want them to be there to celebrate your happiness with you. Therefore, it only stands to reason that we hear more from you about how else we make the kinds of Birthday for Him Inytes that you would like to see, that you would proudly send to people because you know that the moment they see it, they will smile and nod and say to themselves that they would not have expected anything less perfect from you. So, please allow us to make the future of Inytes.com the future that you wish for it to be. The more we hear from you, the better able we are to understand what areas of your interest we have yet to address, or could have addressed better.

A Healthy Birthday for Him

Although most people may consider it not a matter of concern, we at Inytes.com thought that we would explore healthy alternatives to some of the food and beverage choices that are usually made when celebrating a Birthday for Him. Of course, we are completely aware of how easy it is to pick up bottles of carbonated sodas and bags of processed snacks to throw into bowls and serve up for the man who really doesn’t care about what he puts into his mouth because he is generally healthy, or so he thinks. But think about how much better it can be if for one day, his special day, he eats and drinks something clean and healthy, freshly prepared, that wakes him up to the possibility of there being healthier things to stuff his face with. Consider the possibilities of making a fresh start when celebrating a Birthday for Him.

Healthy, Young, Birthday for Him

While it is notoriously difficult to get young boys to eat healthy, it is not entirely impossible. Try switching out store-bought foods for alternatives that you can prepare at home so that you know what you are putting inside it is of your own choosing. Bake cookies, pizzas or whatever, and top them with healthier alternatives than simply chocolate chips or gobs of cheese and meat. Or, you can get creative by trying to change the form of a more traditional food item that you had previously thought to not fall under an easy party food, like noodles or pasta. Try chopping up some meat and vegetables very finely, and then wrapping them in cooked noodles and deep frying it. This way, the noodles form an outer shell that is visually interesting to look at, while containing much healthier and tastier ingredients inside.

Switch out the usual carbonated beverages for homemade lemonade, and go wild with the variations that you can try. Add a dash of strawberry and change the color of the beverage, or top up a batch of lemonade with some natural homemade ginger bug and give it light effervescence that will enhance the flavour profile of the beverage. Alternatively, see if you can switch out regular water with some infused water that you can easily make at home. Just find the fruits that your son likes and have them infusing in jugs of water well before the party so that they can be served up on demand. And trust us, there will be plenty of demand.

Nutritious, Classy Birthday for Him

For the older, more distinguished gentlemen in your life, try some slightly more sophisticated focaccia topped with sliced green veggies, and black olives, maybe even some source of vegetarian protein that could be more easily digestible. Instead of the traditional and seemingly mandatory cake, try assorted crepes made from different vegetable sources that will provide the moisture to the batter, as well as the color, making them visually stunning. Then, fill these with whipped cream cheese filling that is full of diced seasonal fruit, making the overall dish much lighter and more healthy than any cake that you or I know of.

Instead of serving alcohol spiked beverages, why not serve up fresh fruit juices spiked with kombucha or ginger bug, or any other naturally fermented beverage that you can prepare at home and be in complete control of the list of ingredients that you put in it. It will take some foresight and additional preparation, but we assure you that the satisfaction of the special man who birthday it is of knowing that extra care went into his beverages and snacks because he is loved and cared for will be something you wouldn’t want to miss for the world.

These are just a handful of brief tips that you can try and incorporate into making a birthday celebration a healthier and more wholesome affair. And, feel free to try them for any other kinds of birthdays as well, not just Birthday for Him celebrations. As always, we would love for you to pitch in and let us know what healthy birthday party alternatives you have tried out and that have worked for you. Thank you in advance for helping us try and make a healthy break from the otherwise standard sodas and cake.

We have all been involved in planning birthday parties for children, very often our own. Even if we did not have children, we helped plan our younger sibling’s birthday, or had been roped in to helping do so for a friend of ours, etc. On the outset, we may have been tempted to try and get away with arranging a cake and a few snacks, as well as some games that would entertain children of a specific age, but the fact of the matter is it is a whole lot more complicated than this.

What is the best indicator that you have successfully done a decent job of planning the birthday party? The birthday girl or boy smiling from ear to ear with absolute delight. On the other hand, as children, if your party planning is found to be wanting, she or he will let you know in no uncertain terms.

However, we are all about solutions here at Inytes.com, so we thought we would help you identify how best to make use of our collection of Kids Birthday Inytes to assist you with planning children’s birthday parties so that you get kudos every time.

The Bedevilled Details

After your daughter or son, or the birthday girl or boy in question has helped you identify who she or he wants to invite to her or his birthday party, you usually set about printing names and addressing envelopes to hand these bulk purchase invitations to. Based on the number of invitations you have handed out, you estimate your party needs, like the amount of food and beverages you will need, the decorations, the number of birthday hats and noisemakers, and the mementos that each child will leave the party with. But, what happens when people don’t show up? What happens if you have organized entertainment in the form of a clown or a magician, but most of the children show up late because their parents didn’t know where the venue was exactly? What do you do then, as your daughter or son looks at you with a frown on their special day?

RSVP List

Not to worry, because when you send out Kids Birthday Inytes, not only are they easily dispatched online, but they request recipients to RSVP. Based on those who have responded in the affirmative to attend, you can be reassured that your estimate of the number of attendees and the number of mementos you will need to purchase will be much closer to, if not exactly on the mark. No more wastage of food, or worrying if there is enough of everything so that no friend of your daughter or son is left without enough to eat or drink, or will have to go home without a birthday memento.

Maps for Navigation Assistance

Oh, and about the location of the party, our Kids Birthday Inytes, like all of our Inytes, give you the option to attach a map of the venue that can easily be accessed by mapping and navigation assistance software to help everyone reach the party using the shortest, least congested route available. This way, you will have far fewer delayed arrivals because you were not sure if they understood your over-the-phone directions about exactly where to come to and what the best way to get there was. We find that such minor things can have a major difference, and when it comes to your children and their birthdays, nothing is too small to ensure their happiness.

Children’s Birthday Party Trends

Things sure have changed since most of us were children, and it looks like they are still continuing to evolve when it comes to Birthday Party arrangements for children. While things have certainly gotten a lot more complex, they have simultaneously become finer and more detailed, which is something most children these days really appreciate. Here’s a brief look at some of the trends that birthday parties in this decade have established.

Themed Birthdays

Gone are the days of a fancy cake in the shape of a dollhouse or a racing car being the main attraction of a kid’s birthday party. Now, everything about the party has to centred around the main theme, so if it is going to be dolls or racing cars, there better be paper plates with images of these on them, as well as dolls or racing cars featuring prominently in the decorations, the birthday invitations, the food, the everything, short of having your daughter emerge from a life-size dollhouse, or your son driving up in an F1 car.

Birthday Packs

Small packs of gifts or edibles, or both, are not new to kids’ birthday parties. However, themed cookies and cake pops featuring in these takeaway packs is an important thing. In fact, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and how it has prohibited large gatherings of people, birthday packs have also included small bottles of hand sanitizers, face masks that are designed to be safe and follow the theme of the birthday, and also small puzzles and other brain teasers that the attendees can take back with them to the safety and security of their homes to entertain themselves with. Now, while this may seem to be prompted by the present global scenario that we all find ourselves in the midst of, the idea of having a lot more to engage those who attended the kid’s birthday party celebration once they get home is something that will continue to be a mainstay.

Photo Corners

A photo corner is something that we have seen at weddings and parties for adults for some time now. It looks like this trend has become popular with children’s birthday parties as well. Now, setting up elaborately decorated places where a professional photographer can take pictures of the birthday girl or boy with her or his friends is all the rage with kids. Not only does it give them something fun to do and feel more like a grown up to welcome their guests and take a picture with them, but it also makes for great memories and a beautiful photo album that they can flip through in the years to come.

Live Videogame Sets

With the popularity of videogames, some kids’ birthday parties have incorporated live sets based around popular videogames, giving the children something to immerse themselves into the entire duration of the party. Think of this as a themed birthday that a child would live inside of, until it was time for them to go home. Some children’s parties for older children that have featured live videogame sets have had paintball mazes set up to mimic the birthday girl or boys favorite first person shooter game environment.

These are just a few of the trends that are currently a big hit for children celebrating their birthdays these days. However, if you know of any more, or have created something that you think could just as easily become the start of the next massive thing when it comes to Kids Birthdays, please do let us know.

Myth and Origins: The Crafty Demon Mahishasura

The story attributed to the reason why Goddess Durga is worshipped on this day begins with the appearance of the demon Mahishasura, said to have had the body of a man but the head of a buffalo, owing to the fact that his father, Mahishi, was a buffalo. He was very powerful and would go to no end to see his evil plans succeed, seeking purely to sow chaos and ignorance everywhere that he went so that what was already there would end up being destroyed under the influence of his powers.

Mahishasura did penance to Lord Brahma for a very long time until the Lord was pleased with his devotion and granted him a boon that no man could kill him. Being an asura already endowed with great power, he used this new gift to continue waging war on the Devas who were led by Lord Indra, their king. After many defeats, the Devas got together and focused all their energies into a form of a goddess, and thus Goddess Durga was born. Imbued with the immense power of the gods, and being a woman and not a man, she set forth to wage war against Mahishasura, the wily shapeshifter, and killed him. Her exploits in this war are said to have been written down in the Devi Mahatmya and is made up of thirteen chapters with a total of seven hundred verses.

Regional Variation in Durgashtami

Although the word “ashta” means eight in Sanskrit, there is some difference in the way that it is associated with as you go from one part of India to another. In some places the notion of eight is thought to be the eight various sub-deities that emerged from the forehead of Goddess Durga, known as the Ashta Shakti, who then went on to kill Mahishasura. The Ashta Shakti are made up of Goddess Brahmani who possesses the characteristic of calmness, like Lord Brahma, Goddess Maheshwari who possesses powers similar to Lord Shiva, Goddess Vaishnavi who possess powers similar to Lord Vishnu, Goddess Koumari who is as pure as the purest virgin, Goddess Aindri, sometimes spelled Oindri, who possess mastery over the senses, Goddess Joggobarahi who possesses powers similar to Varahi, which is one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu, Goddess Narosinghi who is likened to Narasimha, another avatar of Lord Vishnu, and Goddess Chandrika who is a warrior. These goddesses are also worshipped during the course of the 10-day Durga Puja festival in some parts of India.

Traditions and Rituals of Durgashtami

The day of Durgashtami begins with the observance of a fast, the underlying belief of which is if it is taken solemnly and kept for the entire day, until the sun has set, then Goddess Durga will bless the observer of the fast and her family. The focus of Durgashtami, much like Bathukamma [LINK TO BATHUKAMMA BLOG ARTICLE – ABOUT EVENT] which is celebrated in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh during the same time of the year, is the woman or women of the household. The predominant focus is on young girls who are said to be the embodiment of the power that Goddess Durga symbolizes, and one of the rituals associated with Durgashtami is that of washing of the feet of the young girls of the household. In some places, inviting eight young virgins to one’s home to be offered this ritual washing of the feet is yet another way in which the concept of “Ashtami” is interpreted, the belief being that such a household will be blessed for the coming year.

There is no doubt about the popularity of the observance of Durgashtami, certainly as one of the most important days, if not the most important of the days of Durga Puja. This tradition has been passed on for several generations, even making its way to various places around with world in the hearts and minds of the Indian Diaspora. So, what better way to announce the upcoming observance of Durgashtami this year by sending family and friends one of our powerfully designed and most inspired Durgashtami Inytes. Let people know that you are planning a grand celebration that is not to be missed for Durgashtami, and most importantly, that you would like for them to be there celebrating with you. You can attach maps to your Durgashtami Inytes to provide easy-to-use resources to find where exactly you are hosting this celebration, while at the same time being able to track those who RSVP’d in time so that you are able to prepare accordingly for the right number of people to be there. There is no need to hesitate. Simply head on over to Inytes.com and have a gander at our selection of Durgashtami Inytes to get you started.

Durga Puja is one of the biggest and most important festivals in the state of West Bengal, and so at Inytes.com thought we would offer up a recipe of one of the most iconic vegetarian dishes that is associated with Durga Puja specifically, but also West Bengal in general, Aloo Poshto. Considered to be a Bengali Comfort food that pairs excellently with plain rice and a spot of dal curry, for the uninitiated, this dish brings together potatoes (aloo) and poppy seeds (poshto), and before any alarm bells start ringing, there is nothing to worry about, the seeds of the poppy plant have no narcotic effects. In fact, and a rather interesting if somewhat disturbing fact, is that poppy seeds are a waste by-product of poppy cultivation, for the numerous legitimate reasons why this plant is cultivated.

The disturbing fact part has to do with how poppy seeds gained immense popularity as part of the cuisine of West Bengal, and also Odisha and a few other neighboring states that were subjected to intense poppy growing by the occupying British, mostly because farmers had been turned away from growing crops they would otherwise have kept a little of to feed themselves. The reason for the British push to grow poppies on such an immense scale would be much more evident as time went on and the Opium Wars came to fought. The inclusion of poppy seeds in the diet was a desperate attempt to make ends meet, because let us accept the reality of what happened by acknowledging the fact that these farmers never derived anywhere near the level of income from growing poppy that the agents and dealers at the end of the supply chain did. So when faced with mounds of poppy seeds being discarded, the farmer saw these seeds as a ready and welcome supplement to their already meagre diets. But historical downers aside, the delectable Aloo Poshto is a definite must have in the repertoire of any kitchen maestro, so here is the recipe for you to try and enjoy. You will notice however, the very few ingredients that go into making this dish…

Ingredients for Aloo Poshto

• 2 Large Potatoes, make sure that these are a waxier potato variety than the starchy kind of potato that tends to disintegrate very easily when it cooks completely
• 2-3 Tablespoons of Mustard Oil, to begin frying the potato
• 3 Large Green Chilies
• 3 Tablespoons of dried White Poppy Seeds, which is also known as “khus khus” in Hindi
• ½ Teaspoon of Nigella Seeds, which is also known as “kalonji” in Hindi
• ¾ to 1 Cup of water, which will be used in small amount to prepare the paste of poppy seeds, as well as to cook the potatoes, since this dish is usually served dry without any gravy. Feel free to increase the amount of water according to your preference for the consistency of the finished Aloo Poshto, or as necessary inclusive of soaking and grinding the White Poppy Seeds into a paste.
• ¼ Teaspoon of Sugar, which will help bring out the more subtle flavours, like the heat from the Mustard Oil and the Green Chilies, but is considered to be an optional addition to this dish
• ¼ Teaspoon of Turmeric Powder, another optional ingredient because there are recipes out there which omit this ingredient religiously. However, the addition of Turmeric lends itself to giving the potatoes a lovely golden color, which is rather appealing visually
• Salt to Taste

Steps to Make the Poppy Seed Paste

• Soak the White Poppy Seeds in a ¼ cup of Water for at least 4-6 hours. If you can, the ideal amount of time to soak them would be overnight, but in a pinch you may be able to get away with a couple of hours if you warm the water you will be soaking the White Poppy Seeds in.
• Drain the soaked White Poppy Seeds of the water they have been soaking in.
• Chop up one Green Chili and put it in a blender or food processor along with the drained White Poppy Seeds, grinding these ingredients into a mostly fine paste. You may find that you have to add about a tablespoon of water to achieve a paste-like consistency, especially if the seeds move away from the spinning blades of your blender or food processor and stick to the sides, almost as if refusing to be ground down.
• Once you have achieved the perfect consistency of the White Poppy Seed paste, keep it aside, ready to be added to the potatoes.

Steps to Make the Aloo Poshto

• Peel and chop the potatoes into large chunks, roughly half-inch cubes. Wash them to get rid of some of the starch that accumulates on the cut faces of these potato cubes and drain them of any excess water.
• In a frying pan which you can cover with a lid, heat up the Mustard Oil on a medium flame. Please Note: If you see the Mustard Oil smoking, reduce the flame to prevent the Mustard Oil from burning.
• Once the Mustard Oil has heated up sufficiently, add the Nigella Seeds and swish them around in the hot Mustard Oil for a few seconds.
• Throw in the chopped potatoes and move them around in the Mustard Oil so that they are coated in the oil and Nigella Seeds.
• Stir the potatoes occasionally until you see that they are about half done, usually when the edges of the potato pieces become a little translucent. Please Note: There is no need to try and get the potatoes to crisp up and form any sort of light golden crust. They only need to show signs of beginning to cook on the lowered heat with which you are cooking.
• When the potato cubes are half cooked, sprinkle the Turmeric Powder and mix it in among the potato pieces so that they are all coated, or rather, tinged golden because of it.
• Chop the remaining two green chilies, or simply slit them along their length and add them to the potatoes. Stir them in among the potato pieces for a few seconds.
• Add the Poppy Seed Paste to the pan and mix it in to coat the potato pieces. Use the remaining water to rinse the remaining paste out of your blender or food processor, roughly ¾ cup or little less depending on how much you used to grind the poppy seeds, and pour this into the pan. Mix the contents of the pan once again.
• Sprinkle some Salt and the ¼ teaspoon of Sugar if you plan on using it and mix everything together before placing the lid on the pan.
• Keep an eye on the pan and remove from the heat once you see that the potato pieces have cooked without smashing too easily when you press them against the side or bottom of the pan. Generally, once the water has evaporated, the potato pieces will have cooked to the perfect consistency, leaving a dish of cubed potato pieces coated with the Poppy Seed paste. However, if you plan to have a little more gravy, then feel free to add more water, only checking to see that the potatoes are cooked and not overcooked to near mashing consistency, because the evaporation of the water will not serve as a visual cue in this case.
• Serve the Aloo Poshto with plain rice and some dal, or another curry of your choosing, and enjoy this simple but delicious and nutritious meal.

Additional Information

• If you noticed from the recipe, this dish is very unlike more traditional curries or even dry or thick-gravy dishes because it does not use onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, or any other ingredient generally associated with forming the base of most Indian dishes. However, you will be pleasantly surprised at how much flavour there is in Poppy Seed Paste and the Mustard Oil which come together to create a wholly astounding flavour profile.

So, there you have it, an unassuming but very tasty Aloo Poshto that you simply have to try out. And now that you have gone through the recipe, in what we can only assume is part of your preparation for Durgashtami, we would like to draw your attention to the Durgashtami Inytes that we have on our website, Inytes.com. Dazzle your friends and family with our artistically appealing Durgashtami Inytes, and then amaze them even more by hosting the perfect celebration of this holy and auspicious festival to share the love and blessings in each other’s company. On that note, here’s wishing you a Joyously Festive Durgashtami, from all of us here at Inytes.com.

Whether the official age of retirement from a life of gainful employment, or simply a number, when a person reaches the age of 60 it is most certainly a great achievement by any standard. On a person’s 60^th Birthday, they are officially given a seal of dignity, a merit badge of achievement that simultaneously prompts reminiscences of the life lived to arrive at this age, as well as the blessing to go forth and continue living. Reaching the age of 60 is more than simply a number, in our opinion, because it is the cumulative achievement of many smaller milestones that has led to this one.

There is an element of wisdom associated with attaining 60 years of age, and it is not an association to be made lightly. Consider the things that this person has witnessed, the literal decades of modern history that they have lived through, the people in their lives who have come and gone, and so on. For those of you reading this who are not quite there yet, it is admittedly a difficult idea to wrap your heads around. Think about it, and those of you reading this who have reached this wonderful age can attest to this, sixty years ago, there were no personal computers, no mobile phones let alone smart phones, not even flatscreen televisions or any television that could be operated with a remote control. Why, there were nowhere near as many channels on television! And social media? You get the picture.

Along with the wisdom, there is a sense of legacy that a 60-year-old leaves behind them, a sort of tall building that they are still adding storeys to as they continue on in this life. This legacy is the family that they have built with their spouse or partner, the wealth of written works, or other professional or academic achievement that has helped shaped the course of our more modern history. Whatever this legacy is, it is almost as if a 60^th Birthday calls everyone to attention to recognize it, for it is truly an achievement to behold.

Luckily for you, or anyone whom you may know who has a 60^th Birthday coming up, we at Inytes.com have a thoughtful selection of 60^th Birthday Inytes that you can use to help spread the word about this upcoming celebration. All you have to do is make your choice, make a few minor modifications so that it more closely reflects your aesthetic preferences, and send it to all those you wish to attend this 60^th Birthday party that you are throwing. Because, and let’s be honest here, if it is a loved one who is completing their 60^th year of life, you are definitely going to want to celebrate it, no matter what. It would be the perfect time to call your entire family to come together and honour this moment, as you share in the memories and say prayers that this loved one will see many more years of life to come.

60^th Birthday Party Ideas

There are lots of things that go into planning a great birthday party, so we thought we would help you brainstorm a few ideas that you could try and use for an upcoming 60^th Birthday party that you may be planning or throwing. Here we go.

Reminiscing about a Life Lived Well

First up, the overall nature of the party may be more dignified than your average birthday bash, so let us keep this in mind while we come up with ideas for decorating the venue. Make posters of photos that capture some of the key moments in their lives, if you can get your hands on them. Add a touch of class to the presentation of these pictures by framing them elegantly with stylish borders, or blowing them up to poster size so that they can cover the walls of the venue for the party and be a major part of the decorations. As for the other decorations, make them classy and simple, using more straight lines, muted, pastel tones, and combining colors nicely to make them lively but not necessarily exuberant. To go the extra mile, try and provide a small anecdote or snippet of the memory as a bit of reading for your party guests, so that they can go around the room or the venue getting a better idea of the story, or stories, behind these pictures.

Encouraging Good Health

Moving on to the menu, it’s time to keep things light, healthy and very much to the palatability of the guests who may have dietary restrictions that prevent them from eating regular party food, like a luscious cake, or the season’s most popular birthday foods. Don’t misunderstand, we are not saying that you should serve only salads and kale juice. On the contrary, be creative so that you can try and recreate the kinds of things the dignified 60^th Birthday girl or boy loves to eat, but keep these recreations healthy by going easy on the spices, sugar or anything else that may not sit well with the older, more respectable guests who will be attending this birthday party.

The Guest List

Lastly, you will need to put together your guest list well in advance and get started informing people about this upcoming 60^th Birthday that you will be throwing. The primary reason for getting this list ready much before any other aspect of the party is because it may be more difficult for those who wish to attend to be able to make the necessary arrangements to be there on the day. Make sure that they have enough time to do what is necessary and make themselves available for this birthday, because let’s face it, they may be of a more advanced age and will need more time to make the necessary arrangements to be comfortable during their travel to and from the party. And, once you have the guest list in place, we offer you our collection of 60^th Birthday Inytes to help you inform your guests with appropriately designed greetings that come with an RSVP tracking feature so that you can know for sure who will be attending the party.

Christmas is a holiday celebrated all over the world, where decorations adorn shop windows and houses alike, and there is much cheer in the air no matter where in the world you may be. However, there can be some differences in the details surrounding the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God and the Saviour of humankind in the Christian religion. And with Christianity being a minor religion in a country as culturally diverse as India, it is interesting to see how the same holiday celebrations are vibrantly different from one part of the country to another.

Goa

Goa is considered to have the most prominent Christian community in the country, which when coupled with its numerous famous cathedrals and churches, makes it a must-visit location to get a taste of an Indian Christmas. There are celebrations for days, literally, featuring live music and revelry in the cities and towns of the state, beginning on the 23^rd of December every year, and ending on New Year’s Day when the state becomes the preferred location to kick of the year that is coming in larger-than-life fashion.

The Northeast of India, Kerala and Tamil Nadu  

Yet, Goa is by no means the only place in India where Christmas sights can be seen and appreciated. If you travel to the states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, there are plenty of bands and exotic foods that are served up during the Christmas holiday season every year. It is a little unfortunate that accessing these places often requires more special permissions than a simple passport or other regular form of identification. The states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are other more easily accessible states where you can witness the significant Christian populations celebrating one of their most special times of year, complete with lots of music and food. Velankanni in Tamil Nadu is a complex of churches that is also a site of pilgrimage for Christians from all over the country, so if you happen to be in the vicinity, you will not want to miss out on the opportunity to see for yourself.

Indian Metros

The four Indian Metros of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai are places that celebrate Christmas in style, and in spite of Christianity officially being a minor religion in terms of representation, you can easily find many special celebrations or parties that you can join to have yourself a memorable Christmas. Additionally, cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad have their fair share of famous churches and more modern Christmas parties for you to be a part of. And don’t worry about having to try and get yourself invited. It’s Christmas, and the spirit of the season will open doors for you, as those celebrating the holiday will welcome you with open arms and offer you a place at the table, no matter what.

No matter where you are for Christmas, if you are throwing a party to celebrate then you would be best served by our Christmas Inytes from Inytes.com. They are very simple to use, and the functionality they provide will assist you with your party planning needs. Head on over to our website and pick from our selection of Christmas Inytes. Once you have made your choice, modify the color theme to suit your taste and send it to all your “Inytees”. Then, sit back and watch as RSVPs are tracked, letting you know without a doubt who will be joining you for your Christmas party.

Eggnog is a popular Christmas beverage, and while there are many recipes for how to prepare it, the changes that the palate of the average consumer who is undergoing many conscious decisions about healthy alternatives in general is creating a space for “vegan” versions. Here is our version of this iconic Christmas beverage that is gaining popularity with each passing year. This recipe makes about 12 servings of half a cup each, and adding alcohol to this drink is entirely up to you. If you do, however, we ask that you enjoy this beverage responsibly.

Recipe for Vegan Eggnog

Ingredients

3 Cups of Dairy-free Milk

1 400-ml Can of Coconut Milk

80 – 90 ml of Vegan Sweetening Syrup

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon Powder

1 Teaspoon of Nutmeg Powder

½ Teaspoon of Cardamom Powder

360 – 720 ml of either Rum, Brandy or Bourbon – This works out to about 30 – 60 ml per serving, but feel free to use less, or more, once again, responsibly.

Whipped Cream, the quantity of which will be determined by your preference

How to Prepare

Step 1 – Throw into the blender the Dairy-free milk, coconut milk, Vegan Sweetening Syrup, which depending on what is easier to find can be Agave Nectar, Maple Syrup, Brown Rice Syrup, or even Date Syrup. Add the Vanilla Extract, Cardamom Powder and half the single teaspoonfuls of Cinnamon Powder and Nutmeg Powder, and blend until this mixture has reached a creamy, smooth consistency

Step 2 – Give the mixture a taste, and if it needs a little more of that spiced note, add a little more of the Cinnamon Powder and Nutmeg Powder. You can add the entire remainder of both, but consider using some more as part of the final garnish. Eggnog can be served warm or chilled, so you will have to heat or cool it accordingly. Please remember to heat this mixture very carefully because you absolutely do not want it to burn. This mixture will keep for about a week in the refrigerator, so feel free to make a larger batch than this recipe calls for.

Step 3 – Set up the glasses that you will be serving the eggnog in, and pour the alcohol into each. Then, pour the Eggnog mixture on top and gently stir it a few times. Top the glass off with a generous dollop of Whipped Cream, lightly dusted with Cinnamon and/or Nutmeg Powder, or with a stick of Cinnamon that can be used as the stirrer, if you are so inclined.

Step 4 – Serve and enjoy this Vegan Eggnog with your loved ones. And Merry Christmas from all of us here at Inytes.com!

Before we go, we would like to tell you that if you are still in the planning and preparation phase of your Christmas party or get-together, you can use our selection of Christmas Inytes to help you get things organized. What’s more, you are guaranteed to delight your family and friends by sending them one of these Inytes, thanks to the merry designs that they exhibit as they communicate the season’s greetings.

Speaking of inviting people, please be sure to take a look at the First Birthday Inytes that we have at Inytes.com. Their appealing vivacious designs mask their true effectiveness as a key organizing tool when it comes to your child’s First Birthday. Allowing you to track RSVP’s and to attach a map that allows Inytees to find the venue for the celebration with the utmost ease, you will be able to turn your attention to more pertinent matters relating to your infant daughter’s or son’s First Birthday celebrations. Now that we have gotten the nitty-gritty out of the way, we thought we would take a brief look at how different cultures around the world celebrate First Birthdays.

First Birthdays in India

A lot of us have probably heard about the time we cried when we had our heads shaved around the time we turned one year old. For those of you who were born when cameras were more accessible to everyday users like your parents, you have probably been presented with evidence of your reaction as well. However, how many of you know why you had your head shaved at such a time? You may have been told that it was because doing so ensured a more robust growth of hair as you grew up. Not many people will tell you about the underlying belief that imagines that a baby’s hair is connection to negative things from her or his past life.

Interestingly, India is not the only country where a baby’s head is shaved around the one-year mark. People in Turkmenistan observe this practice as well, with the oldest brother of the child’s mother having to ritualistically complete the shaving of the child’s head.

First Birthdays in Japan

In some parts of Japan, a large mochi rice cake is prepared and strapped to the one-year old’s back, after which the baby is asked to walk as many steps as it can. If you are imagining a small, adult-fist-sized dumpling strapped to a baby’s back, think again. Think more like almost two and a half kilograms of mochi cake! For a child? Yeah, that’s quite the feat. Apparently, this weight on the baby’s back is symbolic of all the things that will have to be endured in life, but which will have to be overcome in due course of living.

First Birthdays in Nigeria

Nigerian First Birthday celebrations are all about the feast, and inviting everyone to come and partake in it until they are unable to walk back home, or to their cars to try and get back home. It is believed that a whole roasted cow features quite a bit more often than anyone of us may imagine it being the case, just to give you an idea of the magnitude of the proportions of the feasts.

First Birthdays in China and Korea

Among some families in China and Korea, a certain ritual of having the baby symbolically pick her or his future is still practiced. Nowadays, it may be carried out more for the sake of the amusement of all the well-wishers present, but there was a time when this ritual held a lot more weight. What happens is, a mat or piece of cloth is laid out in front of the baby, on which there are objects that symbolize different kinds of jobs, or fields of interest, such as a pen for someone who may grow up to be a writer, or a ball, which indicates a future in sports, or perhaps even a stethoscope, a rather obvious symbolic reference. Once these have been placed in front of the baby, the baby is allowed to go and pick up the one that intrigues her or him the most.

So, these are some of the ways in which First Birthdays are celebrated or observed around the world. We hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the ways in which different cultures mark the first year after the birth of a child. If you happen to know of any more examples like these, please do let us know by commenting, or sharing with us on our Inytes.com social media profiles. Thank you.

It has been a quiet year and a little bit because of the effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic, but we assure you that people have been celebrating birthdays around the world. On that note, we thought we would take a glimpse at the trends that are popular when it comes to celebrating a child’s First Birthday. We looked at how different cultures around the world celebrate First Birthdays in another blog post [LINK TO BLOG ARTICLE – ABOUT EVENT], but in this post, we will look at more contemporary First Birthday celebration trends.

First Birthday Ball Pit

All this idea needs is a small kiddie pool and baby-safe plastic balls, and you have all the ingredients for a ball pit for your child’s first birthday. It is more than likely that there will be other babies at this First Birthday party, so let them all have fun in the kiddie pool and you, and the other parents can capture these moments to become part of a growing collection of memories from this time in your daughter’s or son’s life.

First Birthday Painted Footprints

One of the first caveats about this activity is that if you can, try and do it outside of your house. If not, and you happen to be a brave soul not fearing an almighty clean up afterwards, then using baby-safe, washable paint, apply the color or colors of your choice to the soles of your daughter’s or son’s feet, and have them walk across large sheet of paper. If you want to, you can even color their hands and have them walk and crawl across the paper, saving it as a memento in the scrapbook that you will so diligently maintain for the rest of your life, labelling it with the date, time and place, just so you never forget when and where.

First Birthday Autographed Onesie

Here is an activity more for the adults who will attend your baby’s First Birthday party, getting them to sign a onesie, or better yet, exercise some artistic flair and paint their names, or a small design on it. If you can organize this beforehand, so that the paint or ink dries and is not a threat to your baby’s health, then one the day of the birthday, you can have your daughter or son wear it and take pictures individually with all those who autographed the onesie. This way, you can have these pictures as part of your collection of fondest memories, and you can share these with those family members and friends who participated as well.

First Birthday Smash Cake

First up, you will need extra cake for this. Now that we have cleared that up, the basic premise of this photo and video opportunity is placing a sheet cake in front of your baby daughter or son, and allowing them to consume it or more likely, play with it as their heart so desires. Let them have at it, scrunching it up between their tiny fingers, or tearing it into pieces as if exercising a considerable amount of power to utterly destroy the cake. There is no nice way to put this, but the main casualty of this activity is the cake. On the plus side however, you will have a stream of photos or several video clips that you can knit together to create a beautiful memory you can play back as many times as you like.

These are just some of the First Birthday celebration trends that are out there, but there are obviously many more. So, please do let us know if you think there are some kinds of celebrations or First Birthday party activities that we should try out. And, before we go, we urge you to check out our First Birthday Inytes on Inytes.com. If you or someone you know has their baby’s first birthday coming up, be sure to choose one from our selection of First Birthday Inytes to send to your family and friends to let them know where the party is happening. Make it a day to remember forever.

The Mythology

The festival of Onam celebrates the return of King Mahabali, a demon (Asura) king who was much loved by his subjects. Having defeated the Devas, or gods in fair battle, King Mahabali came to rule over the three worlds, and looked after them all very well. However, the Devas decided to avenge their defeat and set things right once again, and asked Lord Vishnu to help them regain their prestige. Lord Vishnu took on his fifth incarnation, turning into a diminutive Brahmin by the name of Vamana. Disguised as Vamana, a subject of one of the worlds, he approached King Mahabali and asked for a favor.

Praising the monarch by telling him that he had heard that no one who asks of a favour of the king was ever turned away empty-handed, King Mahabali asked him what he wanted. Vamana said that he wished to have an area of land that he would be able to traverse in three steps, nothing more. Amused by this request, King Mahabali granted him his request. However, it was then that Vamana revealed his true powers, and growing immense he took all of heaven in his first step, and all of the earth with his second step. Seeing this, King Mahabali realized that he was in the presence of Lord Vishnu himself and bowing in worship offered his own head for the third step to be taken. Touched by King Mahabali’s devotion, Lord Vishnu granted the king the permission to return to his kingdom and visit his subjects once a year.

Events to Observe/Participate In

In the state of Kerala, one of the spectacles that draws large crowds is the “Vallam kali” or ‘snake boat’ races that take place during Onam. These “snake boats” are large canoes that can hold up to 128 paddlers and be 120 feet in length, with teams of paddlers trying to shoot down a demarcated section of a lake at top speed. The Nehru Trophy Boat Race held in Punnamada Lake is one of the most famous of these races.

Closer to home, and with Malayalee/Keralite communities spread out all over the globe, you may be able to see “Pookalam” competitions where teams come together to create elaborate and colorful flower carpets in an effort to outdo one another. Traditional designs are generally round and have concentric patterns for traditionally these flower carpets were added to over several days. Nowadays, more modern designs are being presented. If you’re lucky, you may be able join in or create one of your own.

For those more interested in cuisine, the Onam “Sadhya” is a meal that is the crowning glory of festival celebrations. It can feature as many as twenty-six different items, all vegetarian, and in spite of its sumptuousness will leave you wanting more. Although the sadhya was traditionally prepared at home, now you can find special Malayalee restaurants that serve it, or even allow you to get a family pack sized meal that you can eat in the comfort of your home. However, for the true Onam Sadhya experience, see if you can get together with friends and dig into a veritable feast, or find a community centre or similar location that welcomes you to their Onam Celebrations. Trust us, you will be happy that you joined them. Wishing you a Happy Onam!

One of the most anticipated aspects of celebrating Onam is the “Onam Sadhya” or feast. A true sadhya includes twenty-six different dishes, beginning with the mildly flavoured to the richly spiced, before ending with the sweet touch of a couple of “pradhaman” dishes which will keep you sated for a while before you begin looking forward to the next Onam celebration. However, for those who are not accustomed to cooking with coconut or do not like the taste of coconut, either in the form of coconut oil, coconut milk or grated coconut, this vegetarian feast would not be as enjoyable as it was intended to be. On that note, there are more and more recipes in which people are substituting coconut as an ingredient for something else, so that everyone can enjoy the taste of the main ingredients. We share one such recipe for “avial” (pronounced “uh-VEE-ahl”) that does not use coconut, and we hope that you give it a try and enjoy it.

Onam “Avial” Without Coconut

Serves:

2 (As a side dish, this is best consumed with boiled rice, and curry of your choice, like ‘sambhar’)

Ingredients:

2 Cups – Mixture of chopped seasonal vegetables, such as Red/White Pumpkin, Carrots, and/or Moringa Drumstick.

1 ½ Cups – Curd

2 Nos – Green Chili (If you have issues with spice, you may substitute these chilis with half of a bell pepper)

2 Cloves – Garlic

¼-inch – Ginger

1 teaspoon – Chickpea Flour

1 teaspoon – Rice Flour

1 teaspoon – Red Chili Power (Optional. If you can find “Degi Mirch” it will give you a beautiful red color without the spiciness)

1 teaspoon – Vegetable Oil

¼-teaspoon – Turmeric Powder

¼-teaspoon – Ground Pepper

Salt to taste

A Few Curry Leaves

Steps:

• If you have not yet done so, cut the mixed vegetables into batons about an inch and a half in length, wash them and keep them aside.
• Prepare a coarsely ground paste of the 2 cloves of garlic, 2 green chillies and the ¼-inch piece of ginger.
• Boil 2 cups of water, and when it has come to a rolling boil, add the 2 cups of mixed vegetables, the paste of ginger, garlic and curd that you have just prepared, as well as the ¼-teaspoon of turmeric powder and salt. Cook the vegetables covered until they are al dente, for they will cook for a little longer in the following steps.
• Mix the 1 teaspoon of rice flour and 1 teaspoon of chickpea flour into the curd, making sure to mix well.
• Check to see if the vegetables are cooked al dente. If they are, then add this curd mixture to them, and reduce the heat to Low. The idea is to cook out the rawness of the rice flour and chickpea flour, and not necessarily to dry out the curd, which can burn if you are not careful.
• Once you see that the vegetable batons are mostly coated with the curd mixture, in about two or three minutes from when you added the curd mixture to them, add the 1 teaspoon of chili powder, ¼-teaspoon of ground pepper, and the curry leaves. Mix them into the vegetables so they are evenly infused.
• Lastly, turn off the heat and add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil to help the curd mixture emulsify a little and to coat the vegetables and give them a nice glossy finish.
• Serve hot, along with some boiled rice and curry, like sambhar, or whatever curry you wish.

Additional Information:

• The mixed vegetables featured in this recipe are those that are harvested in time for the celebration of Onam, which is the harvest festival in the state of Kerala. If you are substituting vegetables due to lack of availability, please note, try and use hard, gourd vegetables that will not turn mushy when boiled. Potatoes are also not suggested because they will have a similar consistency when cooked, and if they fall apart while mixing in the curd mixture towards the end, then you will wind up with more of a mashed potato dish than an “Avial”. You can even use unripe plantains, keeping the thick green skin on them, cutting them into batons as you would the hard gourd vegetables. Worst case scenario, you can use two cups of mixed frozen vegetables that you find in most grocery stores and supermarkets. Please use a mixture that does not contain corn, however, only, carrots, peas and beans, and pay attention to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
• If you are substituting bell pepper for green chilli, you may want to add them either just before or at the same time as you add the curd mixture. This way, they will retain some crunch and not be too far cooked in relation to the other vegetables. Again, this will depend on the kinds of vegetables that you are going to use in the first place.
• The consistency of the final dish can have a little bit of a thick sauce, or if you can manage to not burn the curd mixture, to be mostly dry with an almost dry residue of curd that sticks to the vegetables. Because this is a side dish, the dryness of this dish will be compensated for by the other curry or curries that you will be eating it with.
• Have some fun with this recipe as you try it out and are more confident making it. See whatever other vegetables you can use based on what is readily available where you are. Most of all, enjoy and have fun with it. Happy Onam! Don’t forget to Inyte your friends and family to try this with you by going to Inytes.com and using our Onam Inytes.

Birthday for Her Inyte Design

Understandably, having a category for Birthday Inytes for women of all ages comes with its own complexities, least of all those associated with potential sensitivity towards the mentioning of a value to denote age. Our growing collection features a majority of floral motifs, starting out with a more vibrant mixture of colors for the young girls in our lives who themselves bring so much color to our lives. Then, following this overall theme, we add a touch of the distinguished by narrowing down the color palette and presenting more grace, more elegance for the young girl who has now become a young woman. Last but not the least by any means, for the more mature woman who has been endowed with wisdom from her years of living, we offer more pastel sophistication that brings out the beauty of colors that have learned to coexist by drawing out the splendor of the other colors that it has been arranged with, bringing out a level of collective visual appeal when they appear in unison.

Milestone Birthday for Her Inytes

Every birthday is important, but some are certainly more important than others. The reasons for this are plenty, but we have made sure that we offer the appropriate Birthday for Her Inyte for the specific milestone birthday that the special girl or woman in your life is about to celebrate. At this point, we just wanted to state for the record that Birthday for Her Inytes work if you want to let people know that you are celebrating a special year in your life, or if you are throwing a party for a good friend or member of the family, whether a surprise party or not. Back to the important milestones, we have included as many of these as we think will be useful to our potential service users, such as pre-10 birthdays, 21^st birthdays, etc. As a young girl, a birthday is a chance for your young princess to shine on her special day, where she and her friends can bring any fantasy world to life. As a young adult, the young woman seeks more meaningful ways in which to express her individuality, and to appreciate this individuality in the company of friends whom she values for their forthrightness and character. Then, as a wise woman with many years of living behind her, she will wish to make her birthdays more about those whom she lovingly surrounds herself with, embracing the good fortune of having these people in her life, no matter what the numeric value of the birthday is.

In truth, the Birthday for Her Inytes are one way in which we choose to show respect to all the women who continue to give it their all so that their families, their friends, can reach the heights that they are destined to achieve. These women are the role models who show the rest of us how seamlessly they can balance the multitudinous responsibilities that they readily take on, making it all appear so effortless and perfect to the untrained eye. So, if you as an exceptional woman has birthday coming up, or perhaps you know such a woman whom you would love to throw a party for, please visit and scan our Birthday for Her Inytes collection at Inytes.com. We assure you that you will not be disappointed with what we have on offer.

Party Ideas for Birthdays for Her

As a regular visitor to our blog, you will have seen that we have been looking at popular birthday celebration trends when it comes to decorations or the games and activities that you should definitely try out for your next birthday party, or next couple of birthday parties. Since the focus of this blog post is the Birthday for Her Inytes category, which is an all-encompassing category in itself, we thought we would try and do something a shade different and brainstorm a couple of ideas for things that can be done at a birthday party that the birthday girl would look forward to doing, no matter what age she was. The idea behind this brainstorming is to have you guys come up with a few more ideas on your own that we can one day put together in a more comprehensive list.

Expression Wall

Set up a wall, or a supported plyboard surface that is covered in large sheets of white paper, and offer up a bunch of paints, crayons, color pencils, pens, what have you, and ask each person to leave an artistic expression that they wish to honor the birthday girl with. The easy way out would be to write a small message to them, maybe a beautiful poem, if any of the partygoers are so inclined, but ideally, something involving the art supplies that have been provided for them to paint a scene, make a colorful doodle, or attempt an on-the-spot portrait of the person who means so much to them.

Please note, the larger the gathering, the larger this Expression Wall will have to be, or it may require a replenishing of the sheets of paper so that groups of those present can make their mark on it in waves. The one alternative to encouraging artistic expression from those attending the party is to allow people to bring pictures of what they believe was a special time that they shared with the birthday girl and pinning it on the wall. If you prefer to make it an all-memorable-photograph affair, then you might want to rename this to “Photo Collage Wall”.

Video Wishes

Now, this idea was born of the exigent circumstances of the Coronavirus Pandemic over the last couple of years, but we thought we could take it a little further. Have all those who Birthday for Her Inytes have been sent to, whether or not they plan to attend, record and send you as the Inyter, a short thirty- or sixty-second video expressing their birthday wishes. The rules for the video wishes are carte blanche, essentially, because if someone wants to exceed the time limit, within a reasonable period of time overall, they are welcome to do so. They can dress up, use stick figures or puppets to play out a short scene, really anything they wish to in order to convey their heartfelt gratitude and love for the birthday girl.

The versatility of this idea is realized when, if unfortunately, something like a pandemic prohibits the celebrating of the birthday girl’s birthday party, she can receive the video and view it by herself, cherishing it as a very meaningful keepsake. On the other hand, if the party is on, then the video can be played on a big screen, and everyone can enjoy the love and potential goofiness that is on display.

These were a couple of ideas to get you started on your brainstorming. We would love to hear from you about what other things you think someone would like to try out to involve guests and really leave a lasting impression of the celebration of a special birthday girl’s birthday.