Diwali

The rainy season is at its wane. The slushy drains and lanes are drying up; the humidity and heat of the weather is gradually subsiding and the temperate shiver in the cool breeze begins to give us an indication of the advent of winter. India is the only country where there are marked seasons that keep changing at the appointed time of the year. After the blistering heat of the summers April, May and June and with the advent of July clouds begin hovering in the sky and the rainy season gives us a much needed relief. The parched earth thirsting for a shower gets the much-awaited down pour – there is flooding of rivers and the rivulets, the grass grows green, the trees, and bushes wear a washed look. That is the rainy season which gradually subsides to usher the other season – the winter – in the month of October and November. And it is only so welcome when this refreshing cool shiver of the wintry breeze marks the advent of the festival of Deepawali – the festival of the row of lights. This is a festival which comes fifteen days after the Vijay Dashmi – The day of the conquest of Ravana – the Demon king by Ram. Hence it has got associated with the celebration of this victory – symbolized also as the victory of the Good over the Evil.

Among all the Indian festivals Deepawali or Diwali as it is commonly called is a festival of great festivity. Prior to the advent of the day of this festival houses are cleaned; every nook and comer of the house is supposed to be got rid of all the dust and dirt; the walls are whitewashed or painted and floors are washed and cleaned. It is in this manner that the entire house is disinfected; necessary as it is after the soggy, slushy rainy season which gives rise to insects and germs particularly in the nooks and comers of the house. This is actually an annual cleaning activity of the house and its surroundings; a necessary activity for a healthy living.

Associated as all this is with the celebration of the victory of Ram over Ravana and Ram’s arrival after it to Ayodhya, the ritual and the revelry has its social and hygienic value. That is how every such festival in our country has been so planned to get associated with life and living. The festival is celebrated by lighting lamps in a row over the house tops; over all the wall tops and parapets of the house. Originally these used to be the earthen lamps filled with mustard oil an