Deepavali

SEASONAL FEATURE DEEPAVALI:

IS A TIME OF JOY, CELEBRATION MARKED BY DELICIOUS FOOD AND HAPPY FAMILY GATHERINGS

By Bawani MK

A festival of lights celebrated globally by Hindus, Sikhs, and is widely observed in India - its spelling differs between regions and variations include Divali and Diwali - Deepavali is a celebration of lights. The word ‘Diwali’ or ‘Deepavali’ means ‘rows of lights’ in Sanskrit. Households light dozens of clay oil lamps called “diyas” – symbolizing the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. Deepavali follows the Hindu lunar calendar and its date changes annually- it’s celebrated on a moonless night in October or November. Therefore, in our home we get to celebrate two festivals in that year. This year we celebrated Deepavali on the 4thf of November 2021 and just after Deepavali is very exciting for us because we start to bring out Christmas decorations. The week leading up to Deepavali, for us means decorating our home with vibrant, bright colours, making sweets together as a family, and wearing new traditional clothes. All this makes it more special and festive. But decorations aside, Deepavali for us is about tradition and family. Being an immigrant mum, it has become extremely important for me to hold on to our culture and pass down these traditions to my girls. It’s been 2 years since we celebrated Deepavali at our family homes back in Malaysia. We usually plan for our parents to visit us, or we fly down to Malaysia during the period of Deepavali. Due to the pandemic this has made it difficult for everyone. We still celebrated with our family virtually. However, that has never stopped us from feeling at home, celebrating traditions, and embracing the festival. Last year due to the pandemic we just celebrated within us, and we were expecting our second addition ‘Devenaa’ to the family. Husband and I decided to keep it simple and relaxed. This year, we wanted to create the festive atmosphere for our daughters, and we invited our neighbours and close friends to celebrate Deepavali. We were very fortunate here in Aotearoa to have made friends and neighbours who not only come together to celebrate our festival but embrace them like our own family would. My fondest yesteryear memory of Deepavali was spending a beautiful day with my parents and brother at my parents’ place. Recalling my childhood celebration in Malaysia, I usually started the day with a traditional oil bath and wore brand new clothes. At around seven or eight in the morning I would pray with my family and my dad gives us his Deepavali ‘ANG POW’ (a Chinese word – a gift of money packed into a red packet or gift envelopes with a symbol of ‘diyas’, symbolising good fortune for the coming year.) Till now my dad gives out his ang pow to us. It’s just like gifts which we exchange during Christmas. But in our case usually the older generation, and particularly the married men, will give out this token of good fortune. Not forgetting the food, we usually have mutton or chicken curry, thosai, idly and briyani, and adding our tradition snacks and sweets – “murukku”, made from rice flour and black gram; “ladoo”, made from flour shortening and sugar; “adhirasam”, a deep-fried treat made with rice flour and jaggery; and “nei urundai”, or ghee balls. Then we would visit our relatives and neighbours houses in the evening with some of the sweets courtesy of mum and me. We make them only once a year, so we want to share them with others. Sometimes Deepavali visitations