Happy Diwali !!!

Happy Diwali !!!

                       

                   Wish you all a very happy and safe Diwali / Deepavali !!! Diwali is one of the major and biggest festivals of India. A week before Diwali itself we can hear the sounds of crackers, rockets and multi colors in the night with colorful sparkles, flower pots and chakra (ground spinner) everywhere in our streets.

                In our homes, moms and grand mothers will start preparing the sweets, savories, snacks three days before diwali.  When we comeback from the school, we can smell the aroma of the sweets and snacks from our front gate and we rush into our home in an excitement, 'Hmmm.....What a smell!!! MOMmmmmm............ What are you preparing ?? ' and most important second question is 'How much are you making ? will that be sufficient ?'. Also, after tasting those yummy finger licking sweets, though we make some comments, will reserve some portion of sweets separately, to enjoy later :) :) :) Then, pestering dad to buy more and different crackers, sparklers, colorful match sticks and new trendy dress for diwali. Waiting for the Diwali day to come to wear a new dress and flaunt in front of our relatives and friends, will go to our neighbor's house in that special dress and exchange sweets with them . That diwali dress will be safe guarded like anything to use it for big events and special occasions. Even after a decade, will remember our diwali outfit with  the respective years celebrated, it was sooo.... special !!!

          Now, What is Diwali / Deepavali ??. Yes, trademark answer is 'Festival of lights' , with explanation as "Deep (Diya) + Awali (row) = Deepavali /Diwali ", "Victory of good over evil". In diversified India, we celebrate Diwali in different dates with different types of stories. In North India , Diwali is celebrated for 5  days with multiple stories like 'Start of Lord Rama Era', 'Goddess Lakshmi came out of the ocean during churna', 'Demolition of Naraka suran by Goddess Kali' etc. 

         There are various rituals during Diwali and differs from state to state. What do we do is

• Cleaning the entire house. As it takes lot of time, usually we do on the weekends before diwali, cleaning the fan, dusting the ceilings, furnitures, sofa sets etc. Discarding the old stored waste things, clothes, newspapers, organizing the closet and most important is cleaning the kitchen :-(. It is a bigggg task. Coz, have to clean the stove which will have adamant stains that will never go off without causing pain in hands and hip. Trust me, i have experience on this stove cleaning part

• Lawn - Lawn cleaning , will be having ample of dry leaves , flowers on the ground. Will broom them and clean it with water. 
• Decorating the electric lights in the puja room, balcony, main door 3 days before, so that can avoid tension during Diwali days.
• Preparing sweets and snacks.

• Washing and decorating earthenware diyas.
• Drawing rangolis in the entrance, puja room and where ever you wish. You may also try kundan rangoli , diya rangoli and flower rangolis. Attaching the pictures at the end of this post.
• Buying new clothes, jewelry, household items big / small.
• Lighting diyas in the main door

• bursting crackers and fireworks.
• visiting our neighbors , relatives, family friends and exchanging sweets with them.
• Enjoying home made sweets and delicious special feast on this day with our family.
• calling our relatives, wishing them on diwali 
• Last but not least, eating Diwali Legiyam (Medicine) at the end. As we eat many sweets, snacks and special food varieties on this special occasion, it should not affect our digestive system. So, while preparing sweets, our granny's used to prepare diwali legiyam (home made digestive medicine) for our digestion. Will post about the Diwali legiyam soon.

Legiyam

Now we will see about the celebrations and procedures during each day of diwali.

Diwali Day 1 -  Krishna Paksha Trayodashi (28th day)

          It is also called as 'Dhanteras' or 'Dhantrayodashi'. On this day Goddess Lakshmi came out of the milky ocean while churning it 

Samuthra Manthan

Devas and asuras churned the ocean to get the amruth (nectar of immortality), using Mount Meru as chruning dasher and five headed Vasuki snake (King of serpents) as rope. But the mountain, did not turn while churning. Lord vishnu's Kurma Avatar came as rescue, upon which mountain is placed and churned the ocean. Asuras got the head side of Vasuki and Devas hold the tail of Vasuki. as they rigorously churned the mountain , vasuki serpent vomited enormous amount of venom in the ocean and it formed like thick foam layer. This venom is very poisonous and it can cause the end of the world. They all were scared.  Only Lord Shiva can survive the power of poison and save the world. Lord Shiva took the venom on his conch and drank it up completely. Goddess Parvati witnesses this situation and pressed Shiva's throat with her hands so that the poison will not go into his stomach. Thus all the venom stayed there in his throat causing blue colour, so he is called Neel Kanthan (Neel - blue and Kanth - Throat). 

                As Lord Shiva drank the venom, devas and asuras continued to chrun the mountain, 13 ratnas emerged from the ocean. After that, Goddess Lakshmi (God of wealth, fortune) and God Kubera came out from the ocean. This is the day we are celebrating "Dhanteras". The complete story about Samuthra Manthan will be in the post - Maha Shiva rathri.

In some places, this day is marked as Dhanvantri Triyodashi, the birth anniversary of God Dhanvanthri (God of Ayurveda / medicine).

It is auspicious to buy silver on this day. Some poeple will do Lakshmi puja on Dhanteras day and some people will do it on 3rd day (Diwali day)


Puja Timings : Lakshmi puja on Dhanteras should be done on 'Pradhosh Kaal' which starts after sunset for approximately 2 hours. The best time to do Lakshmi puja is Pradhosh kaal with fixed lagna, fixed (Sthir) lagna signifies that Lakshmi will stay in our house. Vrishabha Lagna is Sthir and usually adjoins pradhosh kaal during Diwali

Day 2 - Kali Chaudas, Narak Chaturdasi, Choti Diwali

               On this day, Goddess Kali is work shipped more than Lakshmi. In some states like Tamil Nadu, Goa, Pondichery and Karnataka, it is the Deepavali day. On this day Goddess Kali killed the asuran called Narakasuran and saved the mankind from the evil. People wake up early in the morning, apply the hot sesame oil all over the body, will apply nalangu in the legs for kids and women before bath and mix holy Ganga water into the bathing water, its like Ganga Snan (Snan - bath). Nalangu is a little thick paste of turmeric and lime, used to apply as border design on the legs. Adding holy ganga water into the bathing water will make us pure and it is a saying that will not go to Narak (Hell) and will go to heaven if we take ganga Snan.

Nalangu paste

Nalangu applied on legs before bath

Pooja Procedure :

             After taking bath, people will do pooja around 6 in the morning with the sweets and savories , will keep the new dress in a plate in front of god. As it is new dress, as a tradition in all the new dress, a pinch turmeric will be applied in the corner of the dress and will be kept for pooja. Decorate puja room with flowers and arrange a plate with betel leaves, betel nuts, fruits and a coconut.

             First lit the diyas in the puja room especially Kamakshi Amman lamp, lit agarbathis (scented sticks) and dasangam (dhoop powder cone for fragrance). After that, show coconut above the ashes from the agarbathi and break the coconut into 2 pieces, keep it on the fruit plate and then take camphor in the Arati plate and perform arati for the gods in the puja room with camphor plate in one hand and shaking the bell in other hand, will show arati all over the house. After that place the arati plate on the ground , pour a teaspoon of water around the plate 3 times in both clock and anti-clock wise.
                 Wait for sometime till the flame goes off and  take blessings from the elderly people and wear the new dress. As everyone knows, after that will burst crackers, eat sweets,  new gifts from grand parents, sharing and distributing sweets to neighbours and have a feast of deliciously prepared food items with the family

             In North India, it is celebrated as choti Diwali.

Day 3 - Lakshmi Puja

             People Wear new clothes, lit diyas and do puja in this day. In some places, people will do Lakshmi Kubera puja and Ganesha puja. It is believed that Goddess Lakshmi will roam around the earth on this day and so people perform Lakshmi puja during Pradhosh Kaal to invite the goddess and offer many sweets as prasad.  The puja timings are same mentioned in Dhanteras puja timings. The earthenware lamps (diyas) filled with oil are lit in a row in the front door and balcony, rangolis and flowers are decorated in the entrance.

           

                 In some southern states, people perform Kedar Gauri vrat (Nombu) on this day (Deepavali Amavasya). It is important fasting day for the Lord Shiva devotees. There are many stories for this vrat, it is believed that Goddess Gauri herself started this vrat guided by sage Gauthama Maharishi. So, married women do fasting on this day and get blessings from Lord Shiva, this is the final day of the vrat, some people do fasting for 21 days or 16 days or only on the last day depending upon their family customs.

Day 4 - Govardhan puja / Bali pratipada 

                 Govardhan puja falls next day to Diwali, this is celebrated on the pratipada tithi. On this day people work ship Lord Krishna, after lifting the Govardhan mountain and rescued all the living beings from the rain storm. This is the day where Lord Krishna defeated God Indra, who showered his anger in the form of rain.

               This is also called Bali pratipada and it is famous in Maharashtra state. People celebrate victory of Vamana  (Avatar of Lord Vishnu) who kicked Asura king Bali to pathala lok.

Day 5 - Bhai Dooj

              It is the last day of the festival, where sisters pray for their brothers to have a long happy lives and well being of their brothers. Sisters and women will gather and perform puja and applies tika on the forehead of their brother. Lovely brother - sister relationship is celebrated on this day, sweets and gifts are shared.

Here are few pics of our diwali decorations, Happy Diwali !!

Flower Rangoli

             

Kundan Rangoli

- Aarthi Thiyagarajan