Preserved and passed on for generations, the elixir of living the life and the footprints of our ancestors, the culture, the traditions and the zeal of life. Diwali is not just about a festival in our country. It is more about heritage, and its preservation.

On Diwali we celebrate the return of Ram from 14 years of exile, and growing up, Diwali was all about lighting up diyas, cooking sweet Indian delicacies, sparking fire crackers, and worshipping Lord Ganesha and goddess Laxmi. With the change in time and tradition, we are losing the grip on soul of this festival. Here are a few things we all need to turn back to this Diwali!

1. The Elaborate Diwali Pooja- The elaborate Diwali pooja always used to be a family affair but now it is also losing its value to us. The conventional ways of celebrating Diwali started by pooja are changing with most of the youngsters migrating to different cities for education and job. We should learn to pray on our own if we cannot reach home on Diwali. 🙂

2. Sweets– Where there is celebration, there has to be sweets, but nowadays we are turning towards chocolates and other dessert options that are known to be #gluttonfree #cholesterolfree #fatfree and whatnot. We are forgetting that the delicious recipes of homemade sweets like laddus, gulabjamun, barfi, halwa, mathri, etc. that have been handed down to us by our nani and dadi are much healthier and delightful in every sense.

3. New Clothes- The zeal of the festival Diwali needs to be kept alive with new clothes, because Diwali also marks a new beginning, the end of evil and the victory of the good. We promise you that you are going to have a worthy stock of pictures for Instagram with a new ethnic attire.

4. Cleaning our homes- Scientifically, it is a good idea to clean your house around mid-October and mid-November because after the monsoon, cleaning makes sure all the germs and infectants are eradicated from the house.

Although, religiously it is believed that goddess Laxmi visits the homes of devotees on the night of Diwali to bless them with happiness, luck and prosperity for the rest of the year. Therefore, we illuminate and decorate our houses with diyas, lights and rangoli.

5. Firecrackers- Burning of firecrackers also carries a scientific logic behind itself apart from the celebration. The heat produced in the environment due to burning of the crackers makes sure that all the disease causing microbes are removed from the environment after the end of monsoon. But the perpetually increasing pollution restricts us from doing so, and we can opt for lighting mustard oil diyas for the same effect.

So this Diwali, let’s make a promise that we are not going to feel guilty about having an extra gulab jamun, or bursting the fire crackers, that we are not going to wear that old comfortable jeans, rather try a slightly uncomfortable but new dress; that we are going to make sure our houses are spick and span before Diwali. Let’s make a promise to preserve the enriched culture handed down to us by our ancestors.

Happy Diwali!