Sixteen Sanskars (Rituals)

These are various rituals necessary within a life of Hindu. These Sanskras are applied during different phases of life. Some of those are:

1] Jatkarma (worshipping those instruments which are used for living based on profession eg. when a child was 5 day old.)

2] Namkaran (Name ceremony)

3] Annaprashan(Start of Eating)

4] Kesharpan (First time hair cut at around age of 1)

5] Upnayan (thread ceremony –only applicable to three varnas among four but can also be applicable to last Varna in some exceptional cases)

6] Vidyarambh(start of education)

7] Nikhkraman

8] Vivah(Marriage)

9] Garbhadhan

10] Antim Sanskar( last rites before cremation of corpse)

Some Hindus, may perform initiation ceremonies like Upanayana or Janoy or 'Bratabandha'. These ceremonies have variants depending on the caste, the culture and the region.^{[citation needed]}

In a ceremony administered by a priest, a coir string, known as Janoy or Poonal, is hung from around a young boy's left shoulder to his right waist line for Brahmins and from right shoulders to left waistline by Kshatriyas. The ceremony varies from region to community, and includes reading from the Vedas and special Mantras and Slokas.^{[citation needed]}

Young females (prepubescent until married) do not have similar ritual passage as young males. However, some young Hindu females, especially those from southern India, may follow annual Monsoon Austerity Ritual of Purification by not eating cooked food for one or two weeks, depending on age of child. This is known as "Goryo" or "Goriyo".^{[citation needed]}

Generally speaking, Hindus are free to join an order or inner circle, and once they have joined it they may submit to its rites and way of living. But this type of joining is voluntary and has the possibility of leaving the order at any time without serious objection from fellow followers as long as one says and does things without associating them with the order which he or she has left. It is a social form of co-option of life style. It is said in Sanskrit that, "dharmo hi hato hanti, dharmo rakshati rakshitah", which translates to "Dharma, when destroyed, destroys; dharma protects when [it is]protected", meaning the path of righteousness will protect one as long as one upholds and follows it. The initiation (diksha), a sort of purification or consecration involving a transformation of the aspirant's personality, is regarded as a complement to, or even a substitute for, the previous initiation ceremony rite of consecration that preceded the Vedic sacrifice in ancient India; in later and modern Hinduism, the initiation of a layman by his guru (spiritual guide) into a religious sect. In the soma sacrifices of the Vedic period, the lay sacrificer, after bathing, kept a day-long (in some cases up to a yearlong) silent vigil inside a special hut in front of a fire.^{[citation needed]}

Some Hindus will give offerings to their gods by placing rice or flowers in a bowl above the stove every morning before they eat, and behind this bowl may be a picture of one of their gods. Along with giving offerings they might also pray to the god they gave an offering to.[citation needed