DIWALI- CELEBRATION OF LIGHT & SHOPPING

India is the land of festivals and Diwali is a major festival of India. It is celebrated in the months of October and November according to the Hindu calendar. This festival celebrates because of different reasons like Hindu celebrated to show the joy of the return of Lord Rama from his 14 years exile after defeating Ravana. The people of Ayodhya lighted candles and diva to celebrate his return to the kingdom and now it is called Festival of Lights also as every house get decorated with the lights, So one of its names is Deepavali. We celebrate this day to remember the victory of light over dark.

The other major reason to celebrate this festival is it is the day of freedom of Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind got free from the jail .In Jain religion they celebrate this day as they believe that Lord Mahavira attained enlightenment on this day. Along with all this there are still other reasons to celebrate Diwali such as the rising of Lakshmi Maa from the sea, Lord Vishnu killed Narkasura and birth of Goddess Kali. Whatever the reason is there but this festival celebrates with full of positive energy and joy.

Diwali is not one-day celebration. It is festival of 3-4 days.

• First Day – Dhanteras
• Second Day – Choti Diwali
• Third Day – Lakshmi Puja
• Fourth Day – Gowardhan Puja or Padwa
• Fifth Day – Bhaiya Dooj or Bhratri Dooj

The festival of Dhanteras related to Lakshmi Maa and Lord Kuber. It comes in the month of Kartik (Oct-Nov). On this day people worshiped Lakshmi Maa to provide prosperity and wellbeing and worship Lord Kubera as the treasurer of wealth. People worship Lakshmi and Kubera together so they can double their wealth and keep their treasure safe.People do shopping of gold or silver jewelry or utensils to celebrate the occasion of Dhanteras.

Choti Diwali is the day when real preparation of Diwali starts like People decorate their houses with fewer lights and fewer crackers.

The actual day of "Diwali festival" is third day which is known as "Badi Diwali". The women do beautiful rangolis in the morning after choti Diwali, draw tiny footprints which symbolize, as the footprints of Lakshmi. Devotees worship Lakshmi Maa and in evening people perform an aarti and bhajan with diyas full of oil with a cotton wick which is placed on a Puja Thali with sweets, tilak and sacred thread.  This day people decorate their house fully with colorful divas and fairy lights. They do fireworks. They bought more verity of foods and sweets and giving to their relatives and say "Happy Diwali".

Govardhan puja is performed on the day after Badi Deepavali. People do Annakoot puja is performed by preparing Chappan Bhog which contains 56 varieties of food items which are offered to an image of Govardhan is made of cow dung or mud.

Last day of Diwali, not really related to Diwali but very important festival of india is Bhaiya Dooj. This day sisters pray with tika cereomany for their brothers to have long and happy and brothers gives gifts or money to their sisters.

Although Diwali is celebrated largely in india but there are some other counties like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Nepal, Myanmar, Maurititus and Fiji where it is celebrated as national holiday.
Shopping is another major feature of Diwali. People buy new clothes for them and family. They bought decoration things for their houses, fireworks, sweets and food items. Business people start their new businesses as this day considers much as sacred day to start new business.
Every shopping mall, now a days major ecommerce sites like https://www.amazon.com/ and many more gives coupons, discounts, deals on branded things to increase their sales and people really enjoy these very much.
With all these joys and good things I want to conclude with the fact that now a days Diwali get change because of some basic reasons like noise pollution, population, shortage of basic accessories like electricity problem, real sweets or food items. Although we have some problems to celebrate this festival like earlier days but the respect towards this festival will never be ended.

SOURCE:

Wikipedia 

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