Diwali — An Indian Christmas
Diwali is probably India’s the biggest holiday. When I say the biggest, what I mean is it’s celebrated across India. An individual state might have holidays that are more popular than Diwali, but Diwali in my opinion is the only one that gets celebrated across the nation with a big ferver.
There are many stories around Diwali and it’s not as simple as Jesus was born on the day. There is one story that’s prominent though. When Ram, the exiled king of Ayodhya (a city in northern India) came back to his city after defeating Ravan and completing 14 years of unjust exile, the citizens of Ayodya lit the entire city to celebrate his arrival. This is supposed to have happened at least 5000 years ago, so the citizens used used earthen lamps to light the city. And that is why it’s called Diwali or sometimes Deepawali — which literally means a line of lights. And hence decorating your houses with different kinds of lights is a big part of the holiday.
Diwali is celebrated anywhere from one day to 6 days in different parts of India. Where I grew up — Mumbai, it’s usually celebrated for 4 days. Just like Christmas, all the shops are lit everywhere in the country, there are special discounts and sale in the malls as everybody is trying buy new clothes, gifts etc. Lights, shopping, food, rangoli and firecrackers is how Diwali essentially gets celebrated in India. In the US, we try to do as much as possible — sometimes on the closest weekend instead of the actual days!
For kids firecrackers have been always fun. Kids look forward to Diwali because they get to burst the firecrackers. Back in India, they burst really loud ones which I always hated. Keep in mind, firecrackers is not the same as fireworks. Fireworks happen 1000 meters high in the sky. Firecrackers are burst on the ground and most of them are pretty loud. I always liked the ones that doesn’t make any noise. The one shown below are called Sparklers and don't’ make any noise.
Even though you can be creative with electric lights, usually you will see an earthen lamp in front of many people’s house. It’s a tradition to light the earthen lamp with cotton vic in it and oil as the fuel. In Maharashtra, the state where I grew up, there is also a tradition of ‘Kandil’ — a light that’s decorative in nature, and usually hung in front of the house. There is a light bulb inside it which illuminates the whole thing. It can be of different shapes and sizes, but one of the most popular shape is below. A friend of mine created it and hung it in her backyard in Hawthorne!
Diwali cannot complete without mention of Rangoli. Rangoli is usually different patterns drawn on the ground using rice flour or a similar sandy material. Different colors are mixed with it. You can draw patterns or you can draw pictures and fill it with colors. In southern India, I have also seen people using actual rice instead of the sand or rice flour. Here is one such Rangoli (made up of rice instead of the rice flour) I found in front of a house in Westchester!
Food is also a big part of the holiday. In different parts of India, different preparations are made just for Diwali. In the state I grew up, certain dishes are made almost exclusively made in Diwali, just like Thanksgiving Turkey! Here is some food from my state that’s exclusive to Diwali. Most of them is sweet, but some of them can be spicy too!
Almost anyone who grew up in India and celebrated Diwali, will have their Diwali fun stories to tell. We did an event a GumGum where most of the people remembered the good old days and became nostalgic about the fun they had in childhood Diwali. Many of them try to keep the tradition alive by doing whatever they can in the US. I went to someone’s house to celebrate Diwali in the craziness that’s going around. There were only three families (instead of the usual 15!) and we wore masks and social distanced! We kept ourselves to outdoors. As they say — where there’s a will, there’s a way!
