DronaCrafts

Marble Handicraft
Whether you are decorating your home and office or looking for traditional and attractive gifts collection, we have some unique collections in marble handicrafts of your interest. These decorative marble handicraft items can create a unique and traditional look to your house and it will stand out for its grace and beauty.

Marble painting: Here you can find exotic range of handmade marble painting on real marble. Embossed and golden foil worked marble painting is available in beautifully carved figures including art, god painting, animals painting, birds painting, lady designed painting, instrumental painting, village painting and many more. Marble paintings are adorned with Meenakari, embossed and kundan work. This type of marvelous handmade marble painting enhances the beauty of your interiors, allowing you decorate you working and living area.

Marble utility item: Many carved utility items are available here. Utility marble handicrafts in India for home and office use as well as for decoration purpose like marble mobile holder, pen holder, clock, wall clock, pillar clock, pooja thali, kumkum boxes, jewelry boxes, napkin holder, marble pot, key holder, tray, lamp, chowki, glass and many more. All these marble utility items decorated with colorful designs, embossed work, stones and beads work are made using high grade Makarana marbles.

Christmas is the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on December 25 in the Western Church. The traditional date of December 25 goes back as far as A.D. 273. Two pagan festivals honoring the sun were also celebrated on that day and it is possible that December 25 was chosen to counteract the influence of paganism. To this day some people feel uncomfortable with Christmas because they think it is somehow tainted by the pagan festivals held on that day. But Christians have long believed that the gospel not only transcends culture, it also transforms it. In A.D. 320 one theologian answered this criticism by noting, “We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it.

The Dates of Christmas
Why do we celebrate on December 25th?
There are two specific theories for why we use the date of December 25th for Christmas.
First, people and religions of the day celebrated some sort of holiday around that time. From Jewish Chanukah to Pagan Winter Solstice to Germanic Yule to Roman Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Birth of the Unconquered Sun); the sheer number of celebration days with trees, decorations, yule logs, mistletoe and feasts seem to point to a season of celebration to which Christians added the birth of Jesus as a counter-cultural event and possibly even an escape from the pagan holidays for early believers.

December 25th was the Saturnalia Festival of emancipation, gift giving and the triumph of light after the longest night. The Christian sees the truth implicit in this pagan tradition that reflects: Christ the Light of the world, His triumph over the night of sin in Luke 1:78-79:

"...Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

The second theory centers around the date “accepted” by the Western Church of March 25 as the Annunciation or Immaculate Conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. December 25 is 9 months later and thus celebrated as the birthday of Jesus. Regardless of the possible reasons for the date, the church calendar was set in the West during Constantine’s reign while the Eastern Church held onto the date of January 6 for some time.

The Origin of Christmas Eve
For centuries, Christmas was celebrated not as a single day, but as a whole season in parts of the world, beginning with this day, December 24, Christmas Eve. Perhaps the practice of celebrating the evening before the big day is an echo from ancient Jewish reckoning. Among earlier Jews, a day began at six in the evening and ran until six the following evening. Had not Moses written: "An evening and a morning were the first day"?

Christmas means "Christ-mass." Although the date is a guess, the tradition of observing it goes back to at least the fourth century. Under the influence of the church, Christian traditions replaced pagan solstice festivals throughout Europe. Often the more innocent pagan practices (such as bringing in a Yule log, decorating with holly and the like) were carried over into the Christmas observance, transfigured with new meaning.

The Kalimba is an African musical instrument consisting of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs. The Kalimba is usually classified as part of the lamellaphone family and part of the idiophone family of musical instruments.Members of this broad family of instruments are known by a wide variety of names. The Kalimba is also known as marímbula and mbira in the Caribbean Islands.
Both Joseph H. Howard, owner of the largest collection of drums and ancillary folk instruments in the Americas, and Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji argue that the Kalimba is thoroughly African, being found only in areas populated by Africans or their descendants. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of Kalimba, often accompanied by the hosho, a percussion instrument. The Kalimba was reported to be used in Okpuje, Nsukka area of the south eastern part of Nigeria in the early 1900s. It is a particularly common musical instrument of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It is also often an important instrument to be played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings.

Kalimba came to prominence after the worldwide stage performance and recordings of Thomas Mapfumo on the 1980s, whose music is based on and includes the Kalimba; the work of Dumisani Maraire, who brought marimba and karimba music to the American Pacific Northwest; Ephat Mujuru, who was one of the pioneer teachers of mbira in the US; as well as the writings and recordings of Zimbabwean musicians made by Paul Berliner. Commercially produced Kalimbas were exported from South Africa by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey from the 1950s onward, popularizing the instrument outside Africa.

This elaborately constructed instrument of the size of a massage table has 50 strings and more, especially manufactured and carefully tuned. The vibrational transference of the proportionally designed resonator opens a complete new gate of perception of the healing and harmonizing dimension of pure sound. The Sound Healing Bed has been successfully introduced in Healing-,Yoga- and Wellness centers, spas and theme hotels and counselling set-ups where trained therapists, yoga teachers and wellness instructors offer treatment and sound experience sessions to visitors, clients and patients. A sound treatment - administered with care and individual attention - has a deep harmonizing effect and leaves the recipient without exception in a state of deep relaxation, awe and gratitude. The Sound Healing Bed is available in prototype form and can be manufactured only through direct contact and special customized order and agreement.

After initial preparations for an appropriate 'tune-in', the receiving person lies on the upper surface of the resonating box. While the strings attached to the bottom are gently played, the magic of the sound - in its rich spectrum of overtones- unfolds and envelops and penetrates, as it seems, every cell of the body. The inherent vibrational nature of our organism is tapped and set in motion. The experience of this 'altered state' of an intensified awareness refreshes and nurtures the whole system of the mental-emotional-physical constitution, releases blockades and traumas, regenerates and leaves an imprint of harmony and well-being.

The shekere is a handmade rattle. It consists of a hollow gourd or calabash, covered on the outside with a net of seeds, beads, shells, or any available material. Although its origins are West African, today it is found in the Americas and Caribbean as well.
The calabash or gourd (as it's commonly known in the United States) is a functional creation of nature with a wide variety of uses and traditions in cultures around the world. A fruit of varied shape and size, it commonly grows on a vine not unlike the squash, but there are also varieties that grow on bushes and trees. In so-called "third world" countries the calabash was historically used as a container for water, and still is an essential utensil in many parts of the world. In rural areas of the U.S., they are often used as birdhouses. Throughout Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean and the Americas, gourds are used as resonators for musical instruments.

"Shekere" is a general name to describe the beaded gourd rattle. It comes in many shapes and sizes, is played in a variety of styles, and has many different names. In Africa it is found primarily, but not exclusively, in the countries of Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Benin, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire (there are many parts of Africa where you will not hear this instrument). Different language groups in each country often have their own names, styles, techniques, and traditions associated with the shekere.

In Nigeria, the very large beaded calabash is called an "agbe", and traditionally is owned and played only by professional musicians (Olatunji, Music in African Life). It is a personal instrument and never loaned of shared, even with family members. However, a son who is a professional musician may inherit his father's agbe. Shekeres among the Yeruba of Nigeria are often connected with religion, given great respect, and play a very important role in certain traditional musical forms.

Throughout West Africa you will also a smaller gourd, covered with a woven net which is tied off at the bottom, leaving a tail of loose strings. In Ghana and Togo among the Ewe language group it is known as the "axatse" and is often used to accompany a drum or bell orchestra on important occasions. In Sierra Leone you will find a similar type of shekere with a very loose net an long tail, often called a "shake-shake" or "shaburay".

When African slaves were taken to the "New World," they carried with them many of these rich musical traditions, which took root in varying degrees in different parts of the Americas and the Caribbean. In Cuba, Youruba religious traditions using drums and shekeres are found almost completely intact - with similar rhythmic patterns, names of instruments and accompanying chants. Brazilians sometimes use a beaded (with seeds) coconut called "afuxe" similar in name and style to the Ghanian "axatse". In the United States the shekere and other African related instruments continue to grown in popularity and are rapidly becoming part of our contemporary musical expression.

 It is used for rhythmic accompaniment. This instrument has one head that is resonated by plucking the string that is attached to it. Dating some 500 years back, the khamak originally had a single string but was later modified and now contains two strings. The player holds the body of the instrument under his left arm while his left hand pulls the small brass drum, jerking it slightly, almost unnoticeably. This controls the tension on the strings and sets the fundamental tone of the melody when the strings are plucked....the performer plucks them briskly with the plectrum held in his right hand. However, the fundamental tone produced does not remain fixed and completely depends on the tension applied to the strings.