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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.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 12:29 am and is filed under Indian Art & Culture, Indian Food & Festivals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.