what sacred elements characterize hindu religious traditions?

Answer 1

My wife is a Hindu and that's a very complicated question. I'm not sure what you mean by "elements." Do you mean ritual and customs? It can vary a great deal from one Hindu sect to another, and there are also regional and cultural differences between peoples from different parts of India, but some things seem to be common to several groups.

There's Rakhi, the practice of a man having his sisters give him a small decorative string to tie around his wrist on Rakhi Bandan day, the man is expected to give each of his sister's some sort of gift in return. Sometimes Hindus will also tie a Rakhi on the wrist of a respected elder or holy man. My wife's family is North Indian, but the priest who married us was South Indian, and my wife and I were supposed to tie Rakhis on each other are part of the marriage ceremony. My North Indian brother in law said "take that off, it's like marrying your sister", so apparently tying Rakhi between husband and wife is not a common practice in the North.

There another practice of the touching the feet of an elder or someone of respect such as a religious leader. It's a sign of respect.

Hindu religous services usually offer some kind of food at the end of the ritual. The food is specially blessed by "offering it to God" and anyone who eats it is thought to receive some form of blessing. It's called Prasad, and it can be a full meal or something simple like a piece of fruit or candy. If someone can't make it to the service, it's considered a nice thing to do to bring them some Prasad. My wife's religious leader gives away Kit Kat bars or little bags of nuts and raisins at the end of his public talks. She's in LA right now to see her religious leader, I couldn't make it, but she called me and said he gave her a Kit Kat bar for me. She's going to bring me that chocolate bar even if it melts on the way.

My wife gets upset if I step on anything with writing on it, like a newspaper, she says its "insulting knowledge." I tried to joke and say "isn't it okay if it's the National Enquirer?"

Sometimes men are expected to get a dowry, or money, from the wife's family when they get married. But my wife's family apparently believes this to be in bad taste or "low class."

Anyway, I hope these answers were some help.