Happy Diwali

Wishing you all a very happy Diwali and a prosperous new year ahead.
Spending Diwali with your folks at home always has a special impact. The very feeling of decorating your house with lights brings in that special happiness inside you. Just to put those bulbs and making sure all of them are working file. Putting up the Akashdeva is another feel good factor.

The previous day to Diwali, we have the Narkasura  effigies that are being built and then burnt as a mark of destroying the evil. There is also a competition for the best made Narkasura. Earlier this competition would take place through the night and in the early hours of diwali they would be burnt. With the changing times and other issues regards to security, this event now gets done by 11 pm itself.

On the day of Diwali, one is supposed to apply oil on their bodies and then have a bath. These small traditions  have different hidden scientific meanings to it. In the villages, one of days of Diwali is meant for Refilling the water , which basically means cleaning up all the storage and filling in new water from the well. Apparently, since Diwali comes just after the rains, this event is most likely done to clean up the house post rains and re-filling again all afresh. Also on the Lakshmi puja day all the business owners have a special puja for the godess of wealth. On the same day, in the villages, the farmers do a puja of the cows and bulls who are their source of tilling the fields. I still remember, on this day, cows and bulls get a new rope  which is used to tie them to the pole in the cowshed.

In different parts of the country there are different customs which are followed , primarily due to a scientific reason attached behind this. Would love if you could also share of the customs that are followed in your area.
Happy Deepavali once again.