Deepavali

Deepavali, also known as the "festival of light ", is regarded as a celebration of the victory of good over evil, the uplifting of spiritual darkness. Deepavali to Indians is similar to the Spring festival or the Chinese New Year to the Chinese. It is an official public holiday in India, Malaysia, Guyana, and Singapore, and this festival is mainly celebrated by the Indians. Therefore in Singapore, Little India is the best place to experience the atmosphere of this festival. During the Deepavali, Little India will be filled with colourful and glittery decorations and its lively atmosphere will certainly surprise you and give you a totally different feeling compared to the other days in Little India.




The story of the Deepavali

It was said that in an ancient times, there was a prince of devil named Nakarasura. People suffered a lot under his ruthless control. However, when the deity Lord Krishna killed Nakarasura, the people were protected from evil. People were so glad that they lit up the lamp to have a big celebration. This was the origin of Deepavali and from then on, people celebrate it annually to praise the victory of good over evil.



There are three most important activities during Deepavali, they are Light-up opening ceremony , Navarathiri festival, and Thimidhi festival.



1. Light-up opening ceremony is a symbol of beginning of the festival. Once the lights have been lit up, it will last nearly a month until the end of the Deepavali.






2. Navarathiri festival is to show respect and honour towards three Hindu Goddess, they are the Dhurga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. The celebration will last nine days and on the tenth night, it will have a grand march that will symbolise a successful ending.



3. Thimithi festival is for the Hindu believers to show their atonement and repentance by walking through the burning fire, as well as in memory of their goddess Draupadi. It also a chance for them to express and show their strong faith.





After having a general realization about Deepavali, let's just have a glimpse at what people usually do or what is the custom for people to spend their festival.
Cleaning and decorating the house

In order to meet the coming festival, most Indian families will clean up their house, and also buy some unique lighting or lighting-design based decorations to decorate their house. People also send Deepavali cards to each other to convey their best wishes to their friends and relatives.


Preparation of delicious traditional Indian food

For every ceremony, delicious food is indispensable. It plays an important role when praying. The food that is made of flour or rice flour always has different colours, and mostly tastes sweet.


Beautiful clothes

During Deepavali, the Indians who celebrate this festival will also wear new clothes, a similar practice as the Chinese celebrating the Chinese New Year. One is to avoid wearing black coloured clothes as it is believed that it will bring bad luck. The traditional Indian clothes for man is called Jippa, and woman, Sari or Pungabi.





Visiting friends and relatives

On the day of Deepavali, the Indians always get up before dawn, and use some special materials to wash their body to make themselves have a pure soul. After that they will light an oil lamp to pray, put some food and flowers in front of it which is believed that it can bring good luck for the family. According to the custom, some turmeric powder will be put on the new clothes and then after the family will go for visiting.