A very famous and one of the most widely spread festivals of India; Diwali has been celebrated in the nation for hundreds of years and is a national festival of the country. It marks the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana in Lanka.
There are different ways to celebrate the festival. Usually, it involves decorating ferns and petals in the traditional Diwali pooja thali. It’s a festival which involves lots of decoration in homes. Diwali decoration includes arranging diyas, candles, deep and flowers for diwali. To send diwali gifts and specially designed diwali cards to relatives and friends is a custom almost everyone follows. There is usually a surge in diwali gift hampers and diwali gift baskets during the period. People prepare weeks in advance especially to go for Diwali shopping. Items which normally don’t sell during other months of the year but are in huge demand in this period are diwali candles and the typical diwali cracker. Dry fruits for diwali are also some of the items that sell a lot starting from the months of August-September. Designer candles have found a place in the market in the past couple of years too. Apart from shopping through the markets, the internet has become a fine medium where people can shop and buy different diwali products. Online diwali gifts like cards, chocolate hampers, sweets and even online crackers can be sent to anyone in India and abroad. On this occasion, people also buy flowers online, and then send flowers with there mere click of a mouse.
Talking about diwali traditions, it involves a lot of different customs. One of the most common is filling little clay lamps with oil and then lighting them. Candles and lamps are lit in order to keep them burning all through the night. They are then placed all over the house in corners. This custom is popular in almost all the parts of the country. Entrance to the house is decorated with rangoli in order to welcome the Goddess of wealth Lakshmi. There have also been different meanings to the festival of lights. While in North India it signifies the return of Lord Rama to ayodhya, in Bengal Kali and Durga are worshipped. Also, among the Jains, it signifies the event of Bliss of Nirvana attained by Mahaveera.
During the festival, Govarshan Puja is also observed and performed wherein the idols are bathed with milk and dressed in shining attires embezzled with diamonds and other precious stones like rubies and pearls. Then various sweets are offered to the deities as ‘bhog’.
Diwali as an occasion gives everyone a reason to rejoice, celebrate and above all believe in the power of good which prevails over evil on all occasions. A festival which everyone looks forward to, it is sheer delight to experience it.