Diwali ~ The festival of Lights

Diwali is popularly known as the festival of lights. It is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November. For most of the hindus/Indians and working class, this is the biggest festival and the day when they want to be with their families and perform the prayers together in their homes. Deepavali is an official holiday in India.

The name Diwali is itself a contraction of the word Deepavali which translates into row of lamps (in Sanskrit). Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. During Diwali celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends. Some Indian business communities begin the financial year on the first day of Diwali, hoping for prosperity the following year.

In Hinduism, Deepavali marks the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom of Ayodhya after defeating (the demon king) Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, in the epic Ramayana. In Jainism, Diwali marks the attainment of moksha by Mahavira in 527 BC. In Sikhism, Deepavali commemorates the return of Guru Har Gobind Ji to Amritsar after freeing 52 Hindu kings imprisoned in Fort Gwalior by Emperor Jahangir; the people lit candles and diyas to celebrate his return. This is the reason Sikhs also refer to Deepavali as Bandi Chhorh Divas, "the day of release of detainees". Deepavali is considered a national festival in India and Nepal.

The Christmas Tree

Although I'm a traditional guy, this year I decided to forgo the annual swearing-in of the Christmas-tree lights. I always think of "Catcher in the Rye," where Holden Caulfield happens upon workers cursing a Christmas tree as they struggle to load it onto a truck, so I make my light-stringing ceremony private, out of earshot of impressionable kids and wives. It is unfortunate that tree lights were not around in the frontier days, because they would have been much more humane than those terrible mutilating snare traps. Jim Bridger and the boys could have left a few strands of twinkly Christmas lights near the stream, then come back the next day and collected all the beavers, bears and settlers that had become entangled. I have planned to decorate my tee with Christmas lights setup Victoria. Some types of live trees can be kept outside in containers for a year or two. Others grow fast and must be planted in the ground sooner. Either way, this isn't a long-term solution to your Christmas decorations but what do you do the following year? Pretty soon, the tree won't fit in the house. The light-stringing job is increasingly challenging because my wife picks a bigger tree each year.
In fact, the tree was actually too tall for our living room, unless we went with the avant-garde horizontal format. I had to saw a foot off the trunk and re-install the big boy in its stand. It would have been easier, in terms of tools and man-hours, to cut a hole in the roof, but then squirrels might climb down the tree, reconfigure the electric- train tracks and haul away our Christmas nuts through the doggy door. I hate it when that happens.