Your Questions About Diwali, Competition of Lights, Answered

Diwali is a very powerful pageant of the 12 months in India — and for Hindus particularly.

It’s celebrated throughout faiths by greater than a billion folks on the planet’s most populous nation and the diaspora. Over 5 days, folks participate in festive gatherings, fireworks shows, feasts and prayer.

Diwali is derived from the phrase “Deepavali,” which suggests “a row of lights.” Celebrants mild rows of conventional clay oil lamps outdoors their houses to represent the victory of sunshine over darkness and information over ignorance.

When is Diwali?

The dates of the pageant are primarily based on the Hindu lunar calendar, sometimes falling in late October or early November.

This 12 months, the vacation is being celebrated on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Within the U.S., Diwali falls on Halloween this 12 months, which has triggered fairly just a few #Diwaloween memes on social media the place some celebrants will be seen lighting diyas of their scary costumes or handing out laddoos to trick-or-treaters.

Whereas Diwali is a significant non secular pageant for Hindus, it’s also noticed by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. The origin story of Diwali varies relying on the area. All these tales have one underlying theme — the victory of fine over evil.

In southern India, Diwali celebrates the victory of Lord Krishna’s destruction of the demon Naraka who is alleged to have imprisoned ladies and tormented his topics. In northern India, Diwali honors the triumphant return of Lord Rama, his spouse Sita, and brother Lakshmana, from a 14-year exile within the forest.

How is Diwali celebrated?

The pageant brings with it numerous distinctive traditions, which additionally differ by the area. What all celebrations have in frequent are the lights, fireworks, feasting, new garments and praying.

—In southern India, many have an early morning heat oil tub to represent bathing within the holy River Ganges as a type of bodily and non secular purification.

—Within the north, worshipping the Goddess Lakshmi, who symbolizes wealth and prosperity, is the norm.

Playing is a well-liked custom due to the assumption whoever gambled on Diwali evening would prosper all year long. Many individuals purchase gold on the primary day of Diwali, often known as Dhanteras — an act they imagine will carry them good luck.

Setting off firecrackers is a cherished custom, as is exchanging sweets and presents amongst family and friends. Diwali celebrations sometimes function rangoli, that are geometric, floral patterns drawn on the ground utilizing colourful powders. This 12 months, a number of northern Indian states, together with the capital New Delhi, are instituting partial or whole fireworks bans to fight rising air pollution ranges throughout Diwali.

What are the Diwali tales from different faiths?

Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs have their very own Diwali tales:

—Jains observe Diwali because the day the Lord Mahavira, the final of the good lecturers, attained nirvana, which is liberation from the cycle of delivery, dying and rebirth.

—Sikhs rejoice Bandi Chhor Divas — a day that overlaps with Diwali — to commemorate the discharge of Guru Hargobind, a revered determine within the religion, who had been imprisoned for 12 years by the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

—Buddhists observe the day as one when the Hindu Emperor Ashoka, who dominated within the third century B.C., transformed to Buddhism.

New in 2024: Diwali Barbie

This 12 months, Mattel has launched its “Barbie Signature Diwali Doll” by designer Anita Dongre who wrote on Instagram that her Barbie represents “the fashion-forward fashionable ladies who wears India on her sleeve with satisfaction.”

In distinction to her earliest iteration in 1996 who was clad in a vivid pink sari or the 2012 avatar who was packaged with a “monkey good friend,” Diwali Barbie is fashionably wearing a lehnga, an ankle size embroidered skirt with motifs from Dongre’s house state of Rajasthan, a cropped shirt and vest.

This doll, priced at $40, offered out on day one on Mattel’s web site.