Deepawali or Diwali as it is commonly called, is the festival which is most joyfully celebrated throughout India by the rich and poor alike. Other festivals are of short duration and hence no special preparations are made for them; but this festival normally lasts for four days and every day has got a special importance of its own. Hence all the people in the house from young to old take interest in celebrating the festival in their own way and make preparations for the same for days together.
The usual days for this festival are the last two days of the month of Ashwin and the first two days of the month of Kartik. Sometimes according to the almanac, the festival lasts for only three days or sometimes it is extended upto five days. The general tendency of the human beings is to expect joy for as long a period as possible and hence people expect the Deepawali festival to last for a long period. The elders, who have enjoyed this festival for many years are not much worried about the duration of this festival; but the youngsters who are having special holidays for this festival always like to have the Deepawali lasting for the maximum number of days. Whenever the calendar for the new year is received, the youngsters in the house always try to find out from that as to the number of days allotted for this festival. The children also want this festival to last long because when the elders are celebrating a festival, they are usually giving full freedom to the youngsters and they do not mind if they behave a little out of the way.
Like other Hindu festivals, this festival also has a mythological and social background behind it. Though the first day of Deepawali is known as Narak Chaturdashi, the day preceeding is day also has its importance. This day is the thirteenth day the second half of the month of Ashwin and it is known as ie "Dhanteras" The distinguishing feature of this festival is row ( Awali) of lights ( Deep) from which the festival gets name and these lights are actually kindled from Dhanteras. The mythological story behind the importance of this day goes to say that Yama the Lord of death once asked his assistants as to 'whether they felt sorry any time while performing their duty, 'hey replied that once when they had to snatch away the son of King Haima, only on the fourth day of his marriage, they were pained much to inflict premature death on that young boy. They further requested that in future no such case should happen and _take them to suffer from the pangs of grief. Yamaraj agreed and declared that those who will observe the festival for five days from Dhanteras and light lamps will not have premature death. From that time it became a practice to observe this festival by lighting lamps for five days.
The programme for the first day of Deepawali starts early morning with a hot water bath accompanied by ointments, scented soaps and scents of various kinds according to the choice of every individual. This day is the fourteenth day of the second half of the month of Ashwin and is known as Narak Chaturdashi. As usual a mythological story is told bringing out the importance of this day also. Once upon a time, a demon named Narakasur became very powerful. He was having his kingdom in the region south of the present Nepal and Bhutan states. He invaded the territories of the surrounding kingdoms and imprisoned sixteen thousand ladies whom he had captured by force. He had the audacity even to trouble the gods.
When Lord Shrikrishna knew about this disorderly behavior of the demon, he decided to kill him; but his wife Satyabhama came forward to achieve this task and marched on the demon.
She fought bravely with the demon and killed him before the dawn of the fourteenth day of the second half of the month of Ashwin and freed all the ladies in distress. They all went home and expressed their joy by illuminating their houses. Hence we even now get up early morning on this day and have a bath and have the illuminations by the night.
The second day of the Deepawali festival is the no-moon day or Amavasya. Usually the no-moon day is supposed to be inauspicious for any festival; but this day is supposed to be auspicious, because this was the day when the Goddess Laxmi was freed from the fetters of King Bali by Lord Vishnu in the Waman incarnation. On this day Laxmi i. e. wealth (Cash, Gold etc.) is worshipped in all the houses as well as in all the shops. In old days the merchants and businessmen used to celebrate this day on a very grand scale. They used to have special illumination on that day. They used to entertain their customers with sweets and drinks; but with the scarcity of all things and the sky high prices of all essential commodities, they are not now able to celebrate this day on the same scale as before. However the old practice of worshipping the accounts books etc. is continued by them as before. Their financial year ends on this day. Hence the new books of accounts that they have to open on the new year are worshipped by them on this day, which is dedicated to the Laxmi Pujan.
The third day of the festival is the Padwa. This is the first day of Kartik. The samvat year starts from this day. Many of the business firms who still observe traditional way of keeping accounts, begin their financial year from this day. This way of counting the year is even recognised by the Government, because the assessment of income tax is also done according to this year for so many business firms, who maintain their accounts according to this financial year.
The fourth day of the Deepawali festival is a day of the brothers and sisters. On this day sister is supposed to entertain the brother, give him a feast and the brother in his turn, has to give a gift to his sister. In all the houses this function is celebrated on a grand scale. Waving the Aarati round the face of the brother by the sister on this day is supposed to be very auspicious and it is scrupulously observed by all. Most of the brothers make it a point to pay a visit to their married sisters even if they are staying far away. A mythological story of Yama, the God of death, and his sister is told in this context which throws light on this custom of fostering the relations of the brother and sister on this day.
Thus ends this great festival of the year. This festival is of the longest duration and there is more of social element in it than religious. There might be some economical background behind the celebration of this festival at this particular time of the year. Since long India is essentially a country of farmers. Our whole economy even today depends on the agricultural products that we procure in the year. Though of late some dams have been constructed and few irrigation works are supplying water for farming, still we are even today mainly depending on the crops which we produce in the monsoon. By the end of Ashwin the monsoon mostly gets over in our country and expectation of a good crop, which is by that time blooming gaily in the field, makes the farmer hilarious. He is therefore in a good mood to enjoy the functions of the festival. The children have got long holidays and they are gay because of the firing of crackers that they do freely in this festival. In good old days stitching of new cloths for the ensuing year was being done on the eve of this festival and buying gold and preparing new ornaments for this festival was being done. As now the purchase of clothes does not require any particular occasion and as we are purchas¬ing clothes throughout the year and as the price of gold has soared so high that gold is hardly purchased unless it is absolutely necessary, both the above practices are mostly abandoned.
We wish all our readers and all Sai devotees a happy Diwali and a prosperous new year.
Topic: EDITORIAL DEEPAWALI (Read 3380 times)