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Diwali falls just after monsoons are over in Indian region. It is a opportune time to clean up our houses and surroundings. This is a major task undertaken by all.

As in case of all festivals, wearing traditional outfits adds to the festival spirit. Such outfits can be purchased from most Indian stores.

Sweets and confectioneries of different varieties are next important item to be purchased. It’s a tradition to gift sweets-packets to near and dear ones during this festival.

Diwali - the festival of lights - can not be complete without elaborate arrangements for lighting our places. So we shop for kandeels, earthen diyas, wax candles and fireworks of various kinds - rockets, sprinklers, chakras etc.

Kandeels - lantern made of wooden framework covered with color papers or colored glossy papers - are kept afloat high in front of the houses from the first day of month of Diwali. Kandeels are traditionally built in a crystal shape with tails at the bottom (as in the card sketch above). In recent times, creativity has given way to different shapes such as stars, globes and airplanes. Opaque papers cut into a complex design give more beauty to Kandeels by blocking the light emerging out.

Hindus in earlier days set Kandeels afloat high, a gesture to invite the spirits of their ancestors moving around to come back home and be with them during the festival time. Hence the name AkashaDeepa (lantern of the sky).

A tradition of placing bets (or call it a minor form of gambling) is also followed apparently for fun but indirectly to instill a sense of temporary nature of all our material possessions. This cultural tradition enables one to cope up with financial setbacks with calm and courage.

After fun and festivities, it’s time to get back to work with renewed vigor and a resolve to perform better which gets manifested in cleaning, maintenance and repair of tools of profession by most Indians.

Deepawali 28-30 Nov in 2008

Durga Puja and Dussehra just got over but it’s time to look forward to Diwali (also called Deepavali) festivities.

Deepavali is a festival where people from all age groups participate. They give expression to their happiness by lighting earthen ‘diyas’ (lamps), decorating the houses, bursting firecrackers and inviting near and dear ones to their households for partaking in a sumptuous feast. The lighting of lamps is a way of paying obeisance to god for attainment of health, wealth, knowledge, peace, valor and fame.

It is one time in the whole year that children volunteer to leave their beds long before the day begins. In fact, the traditional oil bath at 3 a.m, is the only chore that stands between them and the pre-dawn adventures. They emerge, scrubbed clean to get into their festive attire, and light up little oil lamps, candles and scented sticks(agarbathis), the wherewithal for setting alight crackers and sparklers.

Who shall set off the first chain of crackers that go boom, bang and vroom? and who is the owner of the 10-minute ‘banger’ that steals the thunder from your little chain of needle-sized crackers? Does the boy next door have more crackers than me?

Competition is stiff, and even the little girl in silk frocks and their finery are watching out for the best sparklers and flowerpots, the rockets and Vishnuchakras, which light-up the night sky like a thousand stars.

Grown-ups are the soul of generosity. Gifts are procured and distributed in abundance to all friends, relatives, and other close acquaintances. Sweets, confectionery, garments, trinkets & jewelry are the preferred gift items. Festive bonhomie abounds.

More information about Diwali - History, Significance, How to celebrate etc. can be found at : http://www.hindilearner.com/diwali.html

Reason : To celebrate victory of good over evil
Date: 07-09 Oct 2008

Durga Puja and Dussehra are two different festivals yet have a common reason behind them. These are clubbed together for the simple reason that most Hindus celebrate both of them and at the same time.

These Hindu festivals are based on legendary tales of victory of good over evil. Dussehra is celebrated to mark the defeat of Ravana by Lord Rama. Durga Puja is celebrated to mark the triumph of warrior Goddess Durga over the buffalo demon, Mahishasura.

Nav-Ratri & Vijay Dasami

The ‘Ramlila‘ - an enactment of the life of Lord Rama, is held during the nine days preceding Dussehra. On the tenth day (Dussehra or Vijay Dasami), larger than life effigies of Ravana, his son and brother -Meghnadh and Kumbhakarna, are set to fire. The theatrical enactments of this dramatic encounter are held throughout the country in which every section of people participates enthusiastically. In burning the effigies the people are asked to burn the evil within them, and thus follow the path of truth and goodness, bearing in mind the instance of Ravana, who despite all his might and majesty was destroyed for his evil ways.

The vibrant festivities of Durga Puja also last for ten days, of which nine nights (Navaratri) are spent in worship - the first three nights are dedicated to the worship of Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and prosperity, the next three nights to Saraswati, Goddess of learning and arts and the last three nights to Shakti (Durga). Beautiful idols of the Goddess are worshipped in elaborate pandals for nine days, and on the tenth day, these are carried out in procession for immersion (visarjan) in a river or pond.

Celebration

Dussehra is celebrated with great fanfare in Kullu, Varanasi, Mysore while Durga puja takes center- stage among people from Bengal and Nepal.

In Himachal Pradesh, a week -long fair in the hill town of Kullu, is a part of the Dussehra celebrations. From the little temples in the hills, deities are brought in procession to the ‘maidan’ in Kullu, to pay homage to the reigning deity, Raghunathji.

In Mysore, Karnataka the Mysore palace is illuminated for a whole month during Dusshera and caparisoned elephants lead a colourful procession through the gaily-decorated streets of the city. It is the most colourful celebration of Dusshera in world.

In Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, families arrange dolls (Bommai Kolu) on artificially constructed steps and prepare an elaborate spread of lamps and flowers. Women traditionally exchange gifts of coconuts, clothes and sweets.

In Punjab, Navaratri is taken as a period of fasting.

In Gujarat, the evenings and nights are occasions for the fascinating Garba dance. The women dance around an earthen lamp while singing devotional songs accompanied by rhythmic clapping of hands.

In Northern India, the festival wears the colourful garb of Ramlila wherein various incidents from Rama’s life are enacted, as is the destruction of Ravana and Bharat Milap, that is the reunion of Ram and his estranged brother Bharat, on the former’s return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile.

Durga Puja and Dussehra are the most popular festivals in India. It is a Hindu festival, which is celebrated all over India. More information on Durga Puja and Dussehra and other Hindu festivals can be found here.

United Nations honors Gandhi’ ideals - declares Gandhi’s birthday i.e. 02 October as
“International Day of Non-Violence”

A recent poll on university campus across the US put Mahatma Gandhi ahead of political figures anywhere in the world. The only man more popular than him among the student community was Bill Gates.

A Berlin school was renamed after after Mahatma Gandhi on demand of it’s students. A large number of US universities and colleges have of late introduced courses in Gandhism. Gandhi Society at the University of Exeter offers trips to India.

The American Academy of Motion Pictures awarded the film ‘Gandhi ‘ eight Oscars in 1983.

All this clearly is evidence of revival of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals. Indeed, the half-naked fakir of British imperial arrogance is capturing popular imagination about a world without violence.

Non-violence is not weakness. On the contrary, it is quite effective as it strips the adversary of all legitimacy. Gandhi demonstrated it’s success against imperial British. American civil rights movement of 1960s led by Martin Luther King Jr. culminated in political rights for African-Americans. Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe when confronted with non-violent resistance led by forces like Solidarity in Poland and Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia.

In 1986, a massive show of peoples power toppled Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in Philippines. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu played a major role in South Africa’s relatively peaceful transition from apartheid to a democracy.

Gandhi’s ideals of Truth and Non-Violence is as relevant as ever. Let us dedicate ourselves to the path shown by him to maintain peace and harmony in the world today.