Diwali : The Festival of Lights

India is a melting pot of races and religions. Every religion has its own unique style of festivals. But Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated with fervor and gaiety among all the races and religions. The festival symbolizes unity in diversity. The celebration of the four-day festival commences on Aswayuja Bahula Chaturdasi and concludes on Kartika Shudda Vijiya.

All over the world all Hindus celebrate Deepawali with great enthusiasm. This is the great festival honouring Mother Lakshmi (goddess of wealth). Diwali is a holy tradition, not to be put in the shade by the lights. Deepawali symbolizes the victory of light over darkness. Celebrated joyously all over the India, it is a festival of wealth and prosperity.

Deepavali is celebrated 20 days after Dussera, on Amavasya - the 15th day of the dark fortnight of the Hindu month of Ashwin (Aasho) in (Oct/ Nov) every year.
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Happy Dussehra

Dussehra is celebrated in various ways in different parts of South Asia. In Bengal, the festival is celebrated as Kali Puja or Durga Puja, while in Tamil Nadu, the festival incorporates worship of the goddesses Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Shakti.

Some people feel that Dussehra and Dasara are not simply different transliterations of the same word, but two different festivals.

The Dasara celebrations in Mysore are popular with tourists, and are conducted with great pomp. Dasara is celebrated in Nepal by the name of Dashain.

Dasara is the festival marking end of Navratri and the immersion of Durga idols which are worshipped for nine days prior to Dussehra. Dussehra is also the day when many families start formal education of their kids. The practise has been so old, that in some parts of Kerala, even after conversions to Christianity, some members of the community continued this tradition. In 2004, many churches in Kerala formally adopted the same tradition of introducing young children to education on Dussehra day.

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Mahatma’s Childhood days

Originally grocers, the Gandhis were bania by caste. The youngest offspring of Karamchand Gandhi alias Kaba Gandhi, Mohandas belonged to families who for three generations from his grandfather had been Prime Ministers in several Kathiawar states.

Mohandas, the future MAHATAMA, was born on Oct 2,1869. When Mohan was seven years old his parents moved 120 miles East to Rajkot. Rajkot became the Gandhis’ second home though the family link with Porbander remained.
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