Diwali, did you know something about this festival?
Diwali is
an Indian religious holiday known as “Lights Festival”, this holiday means the
beginning of new Hindu year and is celebrated for different religions as Hinduism,
Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.
This holiday
lasts for around 4 o 5 days; each day is called according to the Hindu calendar
and it´s celebrated on the 15th day of dark fortnight of the month of
kārttika (from October 21st until November 18th). During this
holiday people clean, adorn and decorated their houses on an especial way.
It
commemorates the death of the demon Narakasura at the hands of Krishna and the
release of the sixteen thousand maidens who had prisoners. Also people celebrated
the return to the Ayodhyā city of Prince Rama after his victory over Ravana,
the demon king.
According
to legend, the inhabitants of the city filled the walls and roofs with lamps
which Rāma could easily find your way. Thus began the tradition of lighting a
multitude of lights at night.
Gods
In this
especial festival there are some Gods who are revered as Lakshmí (Goddess who
symbolizes good luck, beauty and who gives prosperity and wealth). Also the
popular God Ganesha is revered during
this festival.
Typical things about Diwali
People buy
new clothes to wear during this festival; people make sweet and very delicious
food to share with family and friends. And when the night comes people shoot
fireworks and share presents.
Some
traditions are to build an altar where there´s an image of Goddess Lakshmí, to
what will be offered flowers, incense and coins. Other one is at dusk they open
all the windows and doors of houses and in each of them is made an offering of
light with an oil lamp or candle, this will be for Lakshmí enter the rest of
the year.
This year
the festival will start on November 3rd, in the 2014 will be on
October 23rd and in the 2015 will be on November 11th.
If you go to India during this holiday is not unusual that people knock at your door, but don´t be afraid is just because they want to give you food and the only thing that you must do is accept this. This holiday keeps all customs and traditions about Indian culture.
...If you want to know more about this special Indian Holiday you can watch the video...
I really really hope that someday we can have a festival like this one. Just out festival, not a festival share with others countries or religions. It's a beautiful moment to aprecciate the differents cultures of the world. I think thay the Hindu people are very happy when they celebrate this festival. As they, we have to preserve the traditions. Not only go to the "future" with the technology.
ReplyDeleteI´m totally agree with you, could be an advance as a society and as a country. Festivals like this are missing in Chile and what this kind of celebrations does is that we can enjoy, share and have a great time as a family, as friends and allow us to meet new people. I think that would be an incredible idea if we could participate in this type of festivals.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Valentina and Fernando. Any of us would love to be in a festival like this, it certainly would be an incredible experience. On the other hand I think that in our country we need a celebration like this one, which radiate joy, happiness, peace, love, but mainly traditions.It can be that we have the national holydays, which it is a fun celebration, but it is not enough to have 3 or 5 days of celebration, we must remind our traditions, customs, roots, everyday. To promote the practice of these traditions in the children, to not lose them with the passage of time. And if we encouraged more our culture and roots, we would probably contribute to our celebrations be known around the world like the "Festival of Lights", in India.
ReplyDeleteThis festival is amazing, I really hope that some day I could travel there and live this beatiful celebration. People of India share all their kindness each other. All of you are right we hace a national holiday but lasts a few days, is not like the "Festival of Lights", our country also needs a celebration like this, or at least that we be more comitted with our culture.
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