Diwali: A Festival Of Lights
Monday, November 1, 2021
As rightly quoted by someone “Festivals are the indicators of the culture of a country”. Festivals play an important role in everyone’s life. Festivals on one hand are a good source of entertainment and enthusiasm for kids and on other hand provide a relieving break to adults from their monotonous and tiresome works. The festivals inculcate moral values in children and provide an insight to our past. Festivals are part of every nation and religion from times immemorial. Festivals are the soul of culture and social life of any country in the world. They are relevant to the geography and history of the country. Different people of different religion and community have multiple reasons to celebrate festivals. Festivals are the key to remember the events occurred on a particular day and are more or less religion centered. Throughout the year we have many reasons for celebration and to get rejuvenated with friends, family, and relatives. Birthdays, weddings, religious festivals, fun festivals and National holidays are celebrated in India and all over the world.
In India, Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Parsi’s live in harmony and celebrate their festivals with great energy and passions. Festivals more or less are important to every class of society. Diwali is one such festival which is celebrated every year both nationally and globally by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and Newer Buddhas. It’s an astonishing event that brings light, hope, happiness, fun, food, and harmony to the lives of the people.
Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights which is celebrated on the darkest night (Amavasya) of the Hindu Luni-Solar month “Karthik”. The five-day festival symbolizes the spiritual “Victory of Light over Darkness, Good over Evil and Knowledge over Ignorance.” Diwali commemorates the written of Lord Ramachandra, the seventh incarnation of God Vishnu. It is believed that on this day, Sri Ram returned to his people after 14 years of exile during which he fought and won a battle against the demons and the Demon King, Ravan.
Diwali is the amalgamation of people. We exchange gifts, light Diya, decorate house and buildings, buy new clothes, draw colourful Rangoli design to welcome Goddess Laxmi and prepare scrumptious Diwali cuisine. It’s one of the best time of the year to meet relatives and friends to make/create lifetime memories.
Celebrations of different festivals are more beneficial to different kinds of businesses all around. It is the time when people shop a lot including clothes, jewellery, food, decorative items for their home and gifts for each other. Online and retail stores provide a heavy discount to the buyers during different festivals. As a matter of fact, sales of electronic items, home appliances, and vehicles also increase during festivities. Businesses have a great time to make a sound profit.
Diwali helps to inculcate happiness and joy among families and people. Get-togethers, talks over the lunch and dinner, exchanging gifts and chill out in a relaxed environment uplift the relationship goals. It is a welcome break from the mundane routine of performing household duties and office work. Diwali is the festival which adds colours and light of hope to the life of people and makes them aware of their emotional connection of god.
During festivities people buy and wear outfits as per their tradition, for e.g. Maharashtrians ladies wear Kasta paithani, Gujurati ladies wear Bandhani or Laheria sarees and gents wear Kurta, Pajama and Pathani Suit. We all wear new clothes, eat sweets, burst crackers and light up our houses with “in –fashion” LED lights, candles, and traditional Diya. The meaning of Diwali, its significance, rituals and the reason why it is celebrated is beyond counting. A great number of people believe that Diwali is fully celebrated when you buy new clothes to the house servants, visiting the slum areas of the society, for distribution of sweets, clothes, food bags and donating firecrackers for them to enjoy Diwali to the fullest. One could visit the old age home or an orphanage to make Diwali celebration more special and auspicious by spending a good amount of quality time with the people who are away from their families or who don’t have their families.
Since my childhood, I have seen my parents and siblings all together, we clean and decorate our house. In the starting of preparation, mummy cooks special food and dry snacks for Diwali. In the early morning, we draw colourful Rangoli designs on our thresholds, we light diyas in the morning and in the evening, daily visiting the temple and for five days, we burn a lot of crackers before going to bed. On the day of Diwali, we conduct Laxmi Pooja in our house and have a massive get-together of friends, families, and neighbours. Diwali is such a festival that we wait for it throughout the year.
Thus, every festival is important to give a meaningful boost and bring positivity to our lives. Festivals bring joy, peace, and happiness. A celebration of any festival helps to create and maintain the bond of love amongst people. Every religion has different festivals and maybe a reason to celebrate, but the goal or aim is the same, celebrating life.
s