DIWALI

Hi everybody. How do you like this picture? We chose it to represent DIWALI, the Festival of Lights. Diwali is the starting point of our research about festivals and we think this picture reflects all the magic of the festival.
Diwali takes place in late October, early November according to the Hindu lunar calendar.The word is a contraction of Deepawali, from Sanskrit awali for “string, line” and deepa for small earthware oil lamps. So Diwali means “ rows of lights”. They are placed in front of temples, in houses, shops, streets or people let them float on streams and rivers.
It's a long holiday, it lasts 5 days, probably the favourite 5 days of the year, and there are a number of different rituals performed over the 5 days. All the rituals of Diwali have a significance or a story to tell.
On the first day people clean houses and draw rangoli designs on the floor with powders of different colours. Lights are lit and special food is prepared . All this to invite the goddess Lakshami, the goddess of wealth and prosperity , into the house. It also celebrates the return of Rama and his wife Sita to Rama's Kingdom and his victory over the demon king Ravana who had captured Sita.
The second day is the Small Diwali and celebrates Krishna's wife who killed the demoniac king of Prag-Jyotishpur.
The next day Lakshmi visits those homes that have been prepared and decorated.
The fourth day is the day of proper Diwali, it marks the beginning of the New Year and as in other New Year customs, both in East and West, illuminations and fireworks play a big part. Diwali is a time for doing lots of nice activities: exchanging gifts, wearing new colourful clothes, greeting relatives and acquaitances at the service or giving their wishes by phone, emails or on a Diwali greeting cards, cooking delicious food and...gambling! Diwali is an occcasion to gamble (of course it comes from a legend) and there is plenty of time to play over the 5 days.
The last day is the feast of the Brothers: sisters wave a lamp to their brothers and brothers give gifts to their sisters. On this day Yama went to visit his sister Yami and they waved a lamp to each other as a sign of love and respect.
Just out of curiosity. During our WebQuest we found out that Louis Vuitton, the well -known fashion designer has been celebrating the Diwali Festival by decorating all his stores around the world with lit, hand-painted paper trunks. He too wanted to pay tribute to the values the festival represents: harmony, peace and the overcoming of barriers between castes, classes, religions and countries.
OUR THOUGHTS
Beyond all the mithological explanations, what we appreciate about this holiday is its deeper meaning: it represents the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance.Our hearts need to be enlighted with goodwill if we want to reach a peaceful coexistance among all creatures.