What is Diwali and How is it Celebrated?
India is well recognised for its thousands of unique and distinct cultures of all the religions and communities. It comprises of diverse languages, cultures, cuisines, and festivals. The main source of income comprises of the agricultural industry and rich cultural heritage. The Indian rural society has been accelerated at a fast pace by adopting the legislation after independence. It has grown immensely and has been transformed into an urban nation (Way to India, 2016).
The thesis statement covers the diverse celebration of Diwali by different religions. India is a country that has a diverse culture and religions. Diwali is considered as the national festival, which is celebrated all over the globe. The people have the belief that the celebration of Diwali brings prosperity and togetherness. It is considered as a victory of good over evil. People celebrate this festival with all the joy and happiness and celebrate the five days of Diwali. Different religions have a different meaning of Diwali. It is observed that nowadays people are making more show off and the festival is causing harm to the environment in many ways. The festival is celebrated with all the joy but also creates negative impact on society (Booth, 2015).
Diwali is considered as the “festival of lights”. The Sanskrit meaning of Diwali is rows of lighted lamps. The festival is celebrated all around the world irrespective of the religion and beliefs of the people. It symbolizes the victory of good over evil. According to the theory Diwali is considered as the harvest festival marking the last harvest before winter. In the agrarian society, the businessman closes their accounts and starts the new financial year. In many parts of India People celebrate Diwali with a belief that Lord Rama came from 14 years exile in the forest and welcome Lord Rama with all the lights and joyous celebrations. In southern India, people mark it as Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura. Some people believe that Goddess Lakshmi Ji got married to Lord Vishnu. It is celebrated on the first day of lunar Kartika month and is considered as the national festival of India. In the Jainism, it is marked as the nirvana of Lord Mahavira which happened on October 15, 527 BCE. The Sikhs rejoice this festival because on this day Guru Hargobind Ji was released alongside with 52 political prisoners (Hong, 2017).
The festival is celebrated for five days and is started from dhanteras to Bhaidooj. Each day symbolizes different meaning and is celebrated with all the joy and dedication. The people around the world have different beliefs in consideration of this festival. The people have the common practice of forgiving the people for the wrong and there is an air of freedom, friendliness, and festivity. The people have the myth that if they will wake during the brahmamuhurat it will bring ethical discipline, health, and efficiency in work. It will enhance the spirituality of the people (The Indians Abroad, 2009).
Meanings of Diwali Across Different Religions and Cultures
The main idea of the sages was to change the habits of the people so that they can inculcate good living. The Diwali festival was based on the theory of urgent need of turning away from the ruinous path of hatred. The people have the belief that Diwali illuminates the inner self and shines the chamber of the heart. The people celebrate the day by doing good deeds and helping poor people. This day brings progress and prosperity in the life of humans and turns the darkness into the light with all the new hopes and happiness (Legends and Myths, 2016).
This festival brings the light from the darkness and illuminates every corner of India. People celebrate this festival by lighting lamps, sharing togetherness, cleaning homes and firing crackers. The people have the belief that burning crackers in the sky and lighting of the lamp is an expression of respect to heaven for attaining health, wealth, peace and prosperity. The sound of the crackers depicts the plentiful state of the people living on the earth and the scientific reason behind burning the crackers is to kill the mosquitoes and the insects after the rainy season (Ward, 2018).
Contrary to the above belief, burning of the crackers shoots up like a rocket and increases the strontium compound by 120 times and inculcates toxic materials in the human body. The burning of crackers will increase the serious problem of global warming and climatic change. Carbon emissions increase to 60,000 tons and destroy the ecological balance (Modgil, 2017).
The burning of the crackers brings 140 decibels of noise and brings the nightmare for the animals and the elderly people. It also increases the rate of child labor because people employs child for production of the crackers. Around 80% of the child are employed and causes serious medical issues due to direct contact with the chemicals and filling of the gun powder (Modgil, 2017).
Our actions in the present will shape the future of our coming generations. In today’s world Diwali has become more of show off for the people and creates a negative impact on the coming generations. People have ruined the belief of unity and togetherness and gets more involved in the wastage of the resources as well as harming the environment through noise and air pollution. However, turning the dark into the light has become more of a myth and spoiling the joy of the festival (Rao et al, 2012).
Impact of Modern Commercialization on Diwali Festival
Diwali is the festival of removing the darkness and brightening the hearts of the people. It is based on the culture of bringing togetherness and uniting the different religions and culture. It has now become more of social status and causing lots of harm to the environment and involves high wastage of money. The main idea of the sages was to bring the unity and involvement of the good deeds of the people. The idea was to bring togetherness rather than individuality (Pandey, Mishra & Shukla, 2016).
The Diwali festival is celebrated for five days in Hinduism and each day has different meanings for the different religions. In Hinduism, the first day is the dhanteras on which people buy new clothes, clean their homes, lights the lamps to celebrate goddess Lakshmi. The second day is the Naraka Chaturdasi on which the preparations are done and killing of the demon Narakasura. The third day is the main day where the people celebrate Diwali and makes offerings to the goddess Lakshmi. The fourth day is recognized as padwa on which the spouse celebrates their love by offering gifts and the last day is known as Bhaidooj in which the siblings celebrate the festival bond (Pandey, Mishra & Shukla, 2016).
Each religion has a different meaning for different days. In Sikhism, the third day is recognized as Diwali Bandi Chhor Diwas, as it symbolizes the day when Sikh guru encouraged the Sikhs to fight back for the religious freedom from the oppressive emperor Jahangir. The celebration of Sikhs does not include the prayers to goddess Lakshmi and Vishnu Ji (Independent, 2018).
The Jains also celebrates the festival but do not believe in wasting the money and causing harm to the environment. They do not set off firecrackers and don’t waste the money in buying the beautiful decoration items. The Jainism follows the culture of meeting its relative, singing hymns and lights the candle to symbolize the expulsion of ignorance (Independent, 2018).
I have collected the reviews of the people on the interview basis to analyze the reaction of the people of different religions and their beliefs in the festival. I have scrutinized the primary data by taking the interview of 3 people with different religions. The interview was done to analyze the importance of Diwali among different religions and their beliefs. It also provides me the insight into the excitement of the people towards this festival. In the interview process firstly, I interacted with the person who was Hindu. The person described the true meaning of Diwali and their belief in celebrating the festival. He portraits that Diwali is celebrated because Lord Rama came from 14 years of exile in the forest and to show the victory of the good over evil is personified. The person describes that Hindus consider this festival as a means of prosperity and thanks to Goddess Lakshmi for the blessings (Hindustan Times, 2019).
Interview Analysis: Diverse Beliefs and Reactions Towards Diwali Festival
The people also believe that Goddess Lakshmi got married to Vishnu Ji. People purchase new clothes and clean their houses. Hindus make a huge investment in purchasing crackers and buying the decorative items to show off and goes to their relatives to receiving blessing and bring a sense of togetherness. Secondly, I interviewed with the person who follows Jainism, He specified that Janis celebrates this festival because on this Lord Mahavira was marked as Nirvana but he said that Jainism does not believe in wasting the money and causing harm to any living thing. However, they celebrate this festival by singing hymns and lightening the candle to symbolize the expulsion of ignorance (Bureau, 2018).
The people enjoy by visiting each other’s place and believe in peaceful Diwali celebration. The other person follows the religion of Sikhism and stated that Sikhs celebrate Diwali because on this Guru Hargobind Ji was released with 52 political prisoners and the third day is known as Diwali Bandi Chhor Diwas because their guru encouraged the Sikhs to fight for the freedom against the emperor of Jahangir (MacMillan, 2010).
They celebrate for the victory of good over evil and do not worship Goddess Lakshmi or any other God of Hindus. The interview was conducted on the basis of a random questionnaire to record the reactions of the various communities and analyzed the importance of Diwali for the different religions. It described the feeling of the people towards celebrating the festival and is celebrated with all the force all over the world (Brahma, 2015).
From the above discussion, it is concluded that the festival of lights is celebrated with all the joy and dedication towards God. The main theme of celebrating this festival is to celebrate the victory of good over evil. The way of celebrating the festival is based upon religion. It is also analyzed that the beliefs of people are converting into myths because the festival is causing harm to the environment and comprises of wastage of money and resources.
Contrary to the negative impact, Diwali illuminates the light and brings togetherness in the families. It turns the darkness into the light and is considered as the new financial year in the agriculture industry. This festival is celebrated all over the globe and is considered as a national festival of India. From the reactions of the people, I gathered the deep importance and dedication of the diverse persons towards the festival.
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Hong, S.W. (2017). “Preparing for Diwali in the care home.” Nursing and Residential Care, 19(10), p. 548
MacMillan, D. M. (2010). Diwali: Hindu festival of lights. United States of America: Enslow Publishers, Inc
Pandey, A., Mishra, R. K., & Shukla, A. (2016). Study on air pollution trends (2010–2015) due to fireworks during Diwali festival in Delhi, India. Suan Sunandha Science Technology Journal, 3(2), 1-10
Rao, P. S., Gajghate, D. G., Gavane, A. G., Suryawanshi, P., Chauhan, C., Mishra, S. & Wate, S. R. (2012). Air quality status during Diwali Festival of India: A case study. Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology, 89(2), 376-379
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Independent. (2018). Diwali: what is the festival of lights- and how it is celebrated around the world? Retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/diwali-2014-what-is-the-festival-of-lights-and-how-is-it-celebrated-9810212.html
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Modgil, S. (2017). Light of the Indian startups ecosystem? Retrieved from: https://inc42.com/features/diwali-indian-startup-ecosystem/
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Ward, M. (2018). Top 5 festivals of India for foreign visitors. Retrieved from: https://breathedreamgo.com/top-5-festivals-of-india-for-foreign-visitors/
Way to India. (2016). top festivals of India that allure foreign tourist. Retrieved from: https://travel-blog.waytoindia.com/top-festivals-of-india-that-allure-foreign-tourists/
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