Lucknow
November 7, 2018
I am staying at the Hyatt in Lucknow and the floors in all the public spaces are covered in these gorgeous sand sculptures.
Diwali means “row of lamps”. It is traditionally thought of as a Hindu festival, but it is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains and Newar Buddhists. It is a festival of lights, celebrated every autumn in the northern hemisphere (spring in the southern hemisphere), It is thought to have originated as a harvest festival. Dewali is one of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, the spending on new clothes, gifts, candy and fireworks rival Christmas in Christian countries. Diwali symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.”During the celebration, temples, homes, shops and office buildings are covered in lights. The preparations, and rituals, for the festival typically last five days, with the climax occurring on the third day coinciding with the darkest night of the Hindu lunisolar month Kartika. In the Gregorian calendar, the festival generally falls between mid-October and mid-November.
One of the young men creating these sculptures
While not traditionally celebrated by Theravadan Buddhists, the lighting of candles is a part of everyone’s ritual at some point or another. We lit candles for Diwali and chanted in front of the Buddhas at the Buddha Vihar Shanti Upvan, which I wrote about on our visit last year, and you can read about here.
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The Jains Diwali marks the final liberation of Mahavira, the Sikhs celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas to mark the release of Guru Hargobind from a Mughal Empire prison, while Newar Buddhists(Newar Buddhism is the form of Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal), unlike other Buddhists, celebrate Diwali by worshiping Lakshmi. The festival of Diwali is an official holiday in Fiji, Guyana, India, Malaysia (except Sarawak), Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Fireworks fill the air all night long
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Namaste and Happy Diwali!
P.S. – Thanks to the fireworks, apparently Lucknow was the most polluted city of India, with a 300% increase in air pollution over the holiday.