Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi as it is called in many parts of Northen India is one of the major traditional Hindu Festivals. This festival is symbolic of the love and bond between a brother and a sister. On this day the sister ties a silken thread - Rakhi - on the right hand of her brother and blesses him with success and a long life. The brother in return promises to protect her from all evils and difficulties in life. The bond is sealed by the brother and sister offering sweets to each other.

Raksha Bandhan has been celebrated in India since the earliest times and Indian history is full of incidents where brothers have willingly sacrificed their lives to protect their sisters and to uphold the sacred honour of their Rakhi. This festival,as all other Hindu Festivals, follows the Lunar Calendar and falls on the day preceeding the Full Moon night in the month of "Savan". This generally translates to the latter part of August or Early part of September according to the Solar Calendar. This year Raksha Bandhan falls on the 9th of August, 2006.

The bond of Rakhi cuts across cast and religion and there are innumerable instances when a girl having no real brother, has made a brother by tying Rakhi to him or when similarly boys have made sisters. The most glaring example is one of Emperor Humayun - The Second Mughal Emperor of India. History has it that around the latter part of the 15th centuary, when Chittor (a place in the state of Rajasthan) was attacked by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, the then Queen of Chittor - Rani Karmavati, a Rajput, sent a Rakhi in a letter to Emperor Humayun, asking him for his help to save Chittor. Humayun, cutting across his religion and upholding the sacredness of the Rakhi sent to him, responded by taking his army to Chittor to fight on behalf of his sister, whom he had never met in his life. Such is the love and bond that this little piece of silken thread binds between a brother and sister.