Deepavali is festival of lights. ‘Thamasoma jyotirgamaya’! Walk in the path of light. Its again a symbol of victory of good over evil, light over darkness in life and ignorance over knowledge.
Deepavali means lines of Diyas or Deepas.
‘ದೀಪದ ಸಾಲುಗಳು- Some words are beautiful when written in our local language or Sanskrit. It symbolises our culture, feels close to our heart. After Navratri, this is the next big festival for all of us. This festival too is again related to our land, culture and intensely correlated with weather, nature and time!
Naraka Chaturdashi and Oil Bathing
Deepavali starts with applying oil from head to toe and taking bath with very heavy hot water. This festival comes during winter. So, we prepare ourselves by treating our dry skin with oil, taking hot water bath to avoid any last minute rainy Seasons viral infections!
Applying oil is very important to keep our skin healthy and moist. Applying oil also avoids any type of bacterial infections during the season. Applying it on one’s own is bit difficult. Perhaps this is why its made a tradition that couple apply to each other and mother takes care of it for their kids.
After taking bath, everyone wears clean, new clothes. It’s not necessary that, you should buy new clothes to celebrate this.
You can buy it when you need it or if you want to buy it on the occasion and it brings happiness to you and your family!
In olden days this is the season of harvesting. Even now this is the season of harvesting. So once people get the idea of the yield, estimate and start harvesting, they come to know and plan how much to spend, where, how etc. And also today, some researches show that shopping brings happiness and relieves your stress. Our ancestors perhaps knew this with experience and they might have also planned accordingly. In olden days, people used to buy new clothes etc only once or twice in an year during harvesting and they were self sufficient with simple village life style and it was healthy too. Expenses too were managed wisely!
Cleaning
Cleaning is another important aspect of this festival. Clean the dust, moisture, unused itemto avoid any health hazardshazards, infections or avoid any seasonal presence of poisonous creators like snakes etc. Along with this, people clean, paint, apply cow dung and beautifully draw colorful rangolis to brighten the enthusiasm and welcome the harvesting season.
Light the Diyas and Karthika Masa
In this season there is always less light, the nights are longer and the sun sets early. So it was important to keep the lights brighter and for this, people used to light the lamps and the diyas. This shows way to farmers returning from their fields to home and also bigger lantern keeps wild animals and harmful creatures away from residential areas, crop yields etc. Whole month, starting with deepavali, lights are lit and diyas are kept in the evening around the houses and tulsi.
Oil or ghee used also have herbal and some medicinal properties; which again is to avoid some seasonal diseases just with it smell or inhaling it and taking it to our lungs. Also tulsi and some herbs have their own significance in this season to avoid common cold, cough etc.
Sweets and Dry fruits
Lots and lots of sweets, dry fruits are also around the corner during this festival! This is the season when you need energy for longer hours in the fields while harvesting. You will feel hungry soon, to keep you energized sweets and dry fruits are often used.
Laxmi pooja or Dhan Teras
For Businessman and everyone too, Dhanteras or Lakshmi puja is very significant. It’s in our culture that, we thank mother nature or the business strength for helping us achieve so much and give further energy, patience and courage to do better, bear difficulties or losses if any. And finally pray for another successful year ahead!
Bali Padyami and Charity
Bali Padyami teaches us importance of helping others whenever possible and reminds us to be still down to earth however rich or poor you are! Its always important to do charity and help the needy. Good deeds always return to you in one or the other form just like how Bali returns to earth once in an year and witnesses his grand welcome with colorful rangolis.
Crackers
Eco friendly crackers were burnt in this season to shoo away the wild animals and avoid them destroying the crops/yield. This also keep serving the harmful creatures.
Our ancestors lived simple life with beautiful significance in each of our celebrations, during every festival. Now it’s in our hands to continue, pass on the bundled joy and tradition to the next generation and uphold our culture and tradition.
Happy Deepavali
May you all have a happy festival of lights. Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Deepavali.!!