Monday, October 27, 2008

Happy Deepavali
to all the Hindus.
and of course the rest of us who enjoy a holiday!

Do you know that Deepavali is also known as Diwali? Deepavali or Diwali is the direct translation of "Row of Lights" or "Festival of Lights". The lights signify victory of good over the evil within every human being.



You know it somehow remind me of lantern festival where we play with fire as a source of lights. Lighting candles and lanterns in the night is a sight to be behold.

So why do hindus celebrate Deepavali? I read it and it sounds so confusing because of the god's name. Anyway, I summarised it and...

The Killing of Narakasura:

This story is so interesting! Firstly, the evil demon called Narakasura of course, was created by Lord Krishna's wife. About why his wife would create this evil demon, that is up to you to find out. This demon is kind of special as it can be only killed by woman. Hence Lord Krishna act as if he was injured by the demon, and the wife killed the demon instead. After the death of demon, everyone celebrate with colourful lights!



This is just one significants of celebrating Deepavali. The other stories I heard were either too difficult for me to dissect or simply cannot understand. But in anyway, I hope I had not mistaken the true meaning of the above story and changing it to my very own kind of myth.

Another myth I heard is that...

Why do people play cards on Deepavali?

It is believed that goddess Parvati played dice with her husband, Lord Shiv on this day and she decreed that whosoever gambled on Deepavali night would prosper throughout the ensuring year. This tradition of playing cards - flash and rummy with stakes on this particular day continues even to day.

Everybody! Play cards today!

On Deepavali, women will have their hands decorated with beautiful designs. These designs are called Mehndi. It is usually seen in weddings and festivals.



And lastly about the Thaipusam. It is NOT celebrated during Deepavali and instead it is celebrated during Jan/Feb where the moon is full in the Tamil month of Thai.

Fire walking and carrying of kavadis were the common practices during thaipusam. However after seeing the pictures, I think I do not want to try carrying kavadis but instead still want to try out the fire walking.



Fire walking



Carrying kavadis. Maybe during Christmas, you can have a early celebration of carrying your Christmas tree onto you and act like kavadis. Can hang a lot of things some more, like clothes, photo frames and apple.

In the most random way, Happy Deepavali!

by Anonymous at 10:30 AM |