Understanding the Significance of Diwali as a Representation of the Indian Culture

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Usual Diwali Celebration Style
Diwali Celebrations in Other Countries
The European and Australian Diwali
Festival Celebration in USA and Canada
Diwali in other Parts of the World
Incorporating Diwali in other Traditions
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

India is a beautiful country. It has unique festivals one of which is Diwali, otherwise known as Deepavali, the festival of lights. This festival is undoubtedly the most popular of the Hindu festivals.

Like most of the festivals celebrated mainly by Hindus, Diwali has a mythology and a historical basis behind it. Legend stories purport that Hanuman, the monkey god, crucial devotee of Lord Rama, brought the long-awaited message, declaring Rama’s return to his kingdom following an exile of fourteen years.

People refer the festival to as the festival of Sweets. Giving sweets is an activity that has become a tradition in these celebrations.

Usual Diwali Celebration Style

Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains celebrate the festival that lasts for five days. The dates vary based on the Indian lunar calendar (Robinson 123). The celebration has extended outside India to the Diaspora.

It is a mainstream in Britain and countries like Indonesia, the United States, Malaysia, and Singapore. They have incorporated the festival in their local traditions (Robinson 123). Besides eating Indian food, most people outside India are still unfamiliar with the usual Diwali food.

The most common food during this celebratory period is sharing and eating sweets. Indians and other people celebrating the festival eat plenty of sweets during that time.

They also prepare confectioneries, desserts and sweetmeats, which come between snacks that people eat all the time. The sweetmeats or ‘Mithai’, as popularly known, are the most common and the favorite foodstuffs. It is hence the foods, which capture Indian cookery psyche outside India.

In India, it is customary for family members and friends to come together in the celebration. They also exchange gifts. In most cases, they exchange sweets, candy, dried fruits, and other snacks (Robinson 124). People dress up well for the occasion. They share, and exchange gifts of clothes and perfumes as customary activities.

Diwali Celebrations in Other Countries

Since Diwali is significant to Indians as Christmas is for Christians, its celebration is extremely essential. During this celebration, people have their homes lit up with candles. They decorate the streets and businesses with lights.

The European and Australian Diwali

Hindus in other parts of the world celebrate Diwali in a unique way. In the South East Asia, and Indian populations elsewhere in the world, people celebrate the Diwali somewhat differently. Where the Hindus are fewer, they only put on lights and celebrate it in their homes.

On the other hand, when they are many, they take the celebration seriously. The Indians make the celebration seem like a tremendous cultural scene. The United Kingdom has a well-established Indian demography, which allows the country to conduct bigger public events (Richman 67).

Since there are many Indians in Australia and Europe, people conduct the large-scale Diwali events like carnivals and fairs in cities. In Australia, the celebrations are common in Melbourne and Sydney. In the United Kingdom, they are mainly in London (Richman 67).

Featuring in these events are fabulous firework displays, public music and dance performances, stalls that provide services mainly painting henna, stalls selling assorted Diwali sweets, herbs, savories, and people often burning an effigy of the demon King Ravana (Plum-Ucci 12).

People also dress up nicely for the occasion with women wearing their best jewels and silk outfits. Some put on mehendi, temporary decorations of henna on their palms. Since people also refer the celebration to as the celebration of lights, they light various lights: candles, and lanterns, at the event, in houses and even around homes (Plum-Ucci 17).

The women present sweets on shiny, silver trays and garnish the dishes with candlelights called diyas and some time with jewels and flower petals (Plum-Ucci 55).

The Indians in Britain are usually enthusiastic about this festival (Richman 69). They clean their homes, decorating them with lights, mainly candles and lamps. The most salient part is that they also exchange gifts. This tradition goes back to the harvest time when people could offer gifts of their harvest.

Today, they give sweets. The common sweets are barfis and laddoos. Different Hindu communities come together in a central place like in London for the celebrations (Richman 69).

As the event has become more popular, people have observed non-Indians also joining the Diwali festivals. Sometimes the festival of light falls on same dates as the British Bonfire Night on fifth of November. This inspires joint celebrations, which are thrilling (Richman 71).

In Australia, Diwali is not a public holiday recognized across the country. Nonetheless, there is always traffic during the event. Parking places remain fully parked during the period of holding the event. Most Indians close their businesses for the celebrations.

Their Indian community has sent a request to make Diwali a public holiday in the country. In Australia, it is customary for families and friends to share and exchange gifts. In most cases, these gifts are sweets, dried fruits and candy. However, during the main festivity, elaborate food takes center stage.

There is also exchange of perfumes, clothes and soaps as gifts. Other appropriate gifts are lamps, candle stands and fireworks.

Festival Celebration in USA and Canada

All the communities with Indian populations, or those who identify themselves as Hindus, always celebrate the festival of lights (Plum-Ucci 18). The celebrations here are mostly in homes. In Canada, some families organize trips to Niagara Falls in Ontario where the festival of lights takes place.

This often happens because the winter festival and Diwali often fall on the same dates (Coward, Hinnells, and Williams 232). This Niagara festival is usually a spectacular event with an amazing display of lights and fireworks. There is usually adequate entertainment for families ranging from food, music and dance among other activities (Khandelwa 61).

In America, there are some cities with large populations of Indians and Asians. Hence, these communities sponsor large Diwali events (Shah 43).

For instance, Cupertino in California has set a day aside for which the celebration of lights takes place. There is usually, music and dance, cultural performances, foods and gift vending and many other forms of entertainment in cities (Coward, Hinnells, and Williams 232).

In cities, where there are diverse populations, people honor the event. The celebrations take place in Hindu temples like New York (Khandelwa 61), Phoenix, Chicago and Minneapolis. These communities still honor the celebration of lights by lighting up their houses just to celebrate the victory of Rama against demon king Ravana (Torpe 7).

This symbolizes the victory of light over darkness (Plum-Ucci 23). Hindus believe that, during this day, the goddess of happiness roams the earth during the day of celebrating Diwali.

She looks for the purest, cleanest and brightest house, which she enters. It is apparent that the celebration differs in different parts of the world. However, they maintain the general spiritual meaning. That is to increase awareness of the inner light.

Diwali in other Parts of the World

In Asia, especially Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, people celebrate Diwali by placing lamps and candles on banana leaves together with coins and incense sticks. People then float these lights on a river. The view of thousands of candles along a river is always spectacular during the evening of the Diwali celebrations.

In Thailand, one can describe the Diwali celebration as insanely huge. They refer it to as Lam Kriyongh. In Singapore, people refer the celebration to as ‘Deepavali’. The government recognizes it as a public holiday. Its uniqueness is that, a light-up Little India District typically marks it.

The celebration is almost as Diwali customs in India where people come out exchange gifts, have merry performances. Distribution of sweets is the best part of the celebration, as it involves the giving out of sweets of different types.

In Nepal, people refer Diwali to as ‘Swanti’ or ‘Tihar’. The celebrations last for five days just like in the other countries though traditions done during the celebration slightly vary from those done in India.

People decorate the entire country with various lights and lamps in celebration of victory of Rama (Torpe 8). Women prepare exceptional foodstuffs especially sweets of different forms for making this festivity (Ganeshram, and Velloti 135). There are also lively performances, fireworks and crackers everywhere.

In Mauritius, Africa, people celebrate the event with considerable passion. It has been an age-old custom. The native believe the celebration begun even before the return of Lord Rama (Plum-Ucci 6). Diwali here holds a distinct significance for the natives for the coronation of Rama as King.

People celebrate by lighting earthen lamps in lines that make images and they worship Lakshmi (Torpe 6), the goddess of earth (Shah 41). They also burn crackers to scare the evil spirits roaming the earth.

Incorporating Diwali in other Traditions

In the western nations, Diwali celebrations are evidently not as typical as they are in India. There are often some little variations from the traditional way of celebration (Shah 41).

In most cases, the elements of the Hindu culture, which may relate to Diwali, are also present in the celebration to highlight Indian customs and culture. Dances and songs prevalent in Hindu culture often find their way into the celebrations (Khandelwa 61).

For example, it is not a surprise to find men and women performing the ‘Dandiya Rasa’ dance in Diwali celebration outside India. This dance features wooden sticks. Besides, in other places, one has to see Punjabi Bhangra songs and Bhangra dances that people perform during the festival of light (Coward, Hinnells, and Williams 233).

The dance and songs date back to the eleventh century. During that time, the Punjabi farmers would celebrate the coming of the harvest season by dancing to Bhangra folk dance.

The Punjabi musicians who have travelled to western countries popularized the folk dance hence causing the dance to be a popular culture in certain aspects of the western society.

Bhangra is currently popular in the United Kingdom and Canada. Because of the zeal to popularize the Indian culture during such fairs and festivities, there are numerous Indian merchandise also sold during these events besides the food not related to the festival (Khandelwa 61).

Therefore, the festival of lights in countries abroad forms a frightfully convincing way of knowing the Indian culture and understanding Hindu religion. In fact, some places the celebration is all about getting to know the Indian tradition.

The Diwali is a prominent religious celebration for three religious groups – the third largest celebration in the world (Torpe 4). Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains celebrate it. The festival is becoming more popular across the worlds, as more people from different nationalities, ethnicities, and races join in the festivals (Khandelwa 62).

When joining a Diwali festival, it is indispensable to expect more than just gifts. There is usually colorful pomp with elaborate meals, singing and dancing, as well as many other activities associated with the culture.

The goal of Diwali is to teach a tremendously significant lesson to everyone. That ‘good’ always triumphs over ‘evil’ the same way Lord Rama won the battle (Torpe 4).

The festival reminds people of the importance of thanksgiving. It helps in teaching family values and friendships, thus, persuading people to value these things.

Above all, the ceremony teaches people to be charitable to the less fortunate in the society. At this time, it encourages people to share and offer gifts to others. During Diwali, people usually salute one another in English as ‘happy Diwali’ (Coward, Hinnells, and Williams 232).

Conclusion

From the Diwali celebrations across the world, it is evident that without sweets, then the event will not qualify as Diwali. The sweets sweeten the ceremony for everyone attending it.

The sweets are exchanged among everyone: young and old, and male and female. Hindus also share the sweets with other people from other religions, mostly those connected to them. The habit of giving gifts is also encouraging, as it spreads joy to every person involved, whether in India or abroad.

Works Cited

Coward, Harold. Hinnells, John, and Williams, Raymond. The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States. New York: Suny Press. 2000. Print.

Ganeshram, Ramin, and Vellotti, Jean-Paul. Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2006. Print.

Khandelwa, Madhulika. Becoming American, Being Indian: An Immigrant Community in New York City. Ithaca, NY City: Cornell University. 2002. Print.

Plum-Ucci, Carol. Celebrate Diwali. New York: Associated Press, 2005. Print.

Richman, Paula. A Diaspora Ramayana in Southall, Greater London. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67.1 (1999): 21-30. Print.

Robinson, James. Hinduism. New York: InfoBase Publishing. 2004. Print.

Shah, Manju. Celebrating Diwali in America. Journal of South Asian Literature 30.1 (1995): 41-50. Print.

Torpe, Kate. Diwali. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2008. Print.

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