Bav­ina Sookdeo�

Di­vali is a Hin­du fes­ti­val which sym­bol­is­es light over­com­ing dark­ness and good over­com­ing evil. This year, Di­vali will be cel­e­brat­ed on No­vem­ber 23. While many will cel­e­brate the aus­pi­cious oc­ca­sion on just one day, it is a cel­e­bra­tion of five events over four days.

Dhanteras, which in­di­cates the be­gin­ning of Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions, is the first, fol­lowed by Kalichaud­has, Di­vali, the New Year (Di­vali al­so sig­ni­fies the be­gin­ning of a New Year for Hin­dus) and Bhaiya Dooj.

Dhanteras

Dhanteras is a cel­e­bra­tion which takes place two days be­fore Di­vali. Dhan means mon­ey and teras means 13. Dhanteras falls on the 13th day of the Ash­win (Oc­to­ber/No­vem­ber) month (this is ac­cord­ing to the lu­nar cal­en­dar).

On this day, most Hin­dus pur­chase pre­cious met­als be­cause it is be­lieved that such met­als, when bought on Dhanteras, will bring pros­per­i­ty.

The met­al can be any­thing from wares to jew­el­ry. It is then kept in the pu­ja area or room and af­ter Di­vali it is used through­out the year to bring pros­per­i­ty.

Kali Chau­das

Kali Chau­das, the sec­ond day of Di­vali, is cel­e­brat­ed on the 14th day of Ash­win. On this day, moth­er Kali or Shak­ti is cel­e­brat­ed.

Hin­dus be­lieve that it was on this day Kali killed the wicked Rak­tavi­ja. Al­so re­ferred to as Narak-Chatur­dashi (Narak means hell), Kali Chau­das is a day to rid one­self of lazi­ness and evil.

The day al­so rep­re­sents the leg­end of Lord Hanu­man. Hanu­man­ji as a ba­by was very hun­gry. While ly­ing down he saw the sun in the sky and thought it was a fruit and went to pick it.

He flew in­to the sky and put the whole sun in his mouth caus­ing dark­ness through­out the en­tire uni­verse.

Lord In­dra re­quest­ed that Hanu­man­ji re­turn the sun. When Hanu­man­ji re­fused, Lord In­dra un­leashed his va­jra (thun­der­bolt) and knocked Hanu­man­ji down to earth, re­leas­ing the Sun.

On this day Hanu­man pu­ja is per­formed us­ing oil, flow­ers, chan­dan and sin­dur. Co­conuts are al­so of­fered to Lord Hanu­man and sweets made of sesame seed, ladoos and rice with ghee and sug­ar are al­so of­fered.

On this day, a head wash and ap­pli­ca­tion of ka­jal (ka­jer or kohl) in the eyes is be­lieved to keep away the kali nazar (evil eye).

Di­vali and New Year

On the day af­ter Kali Chaud­has, Di­vali (as we know it) is cel­e­brat­ed. Lak­sh­mi pu­ja is per­formed for Di­vali, and sweets and food shared among fam­i­ly, friends and the less for­tu­nate. Deyas and fire­crack­ers are lit as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of al­low­ing light to over­come dark­ness and knowl­edge to over­come ig­no­rance.

On Di­vali, Moth­er Lak­sh­mi is wor­shipped. There are eight forms of Moth­er Lak­sh­mi: Dhana Lak­sh­mi (which rep­re­sents mon­ey), Ga­ja Lak­sh­mi (for good luck–this form of Lak­sh­mi is al­ways seen with an ele­phant), Ad­hi Lak­sh­mi (to bless and ful­fil de­sires), Ais­varya Lak­sh­mi (for more pros­per­i­ty in every­thing), Vi­jaya Lak­sh­mi (for if you would like to win some­thing), Dhanya Lak­sh­mi (which gives you more mon­ey), Vi­ra Lak­sh­mi (If any en­e­mies are caus­ing you un­bear­able agony, the wor­ship of Sri Vi­ra Lak­sh­mi De­vi will weak­en them and make them un­suc­cess­ful.

She will grant you phys­i­cal strength and men­tal courage) and San­thana Lak­sh­mi (which gives you chil­dren)."

Hin­dus al­so cel­e­brate the New Year on the day of Di­vali.

Bhaiya Dooj

Bhaiya Dooj is cel­e­brat­ed. On this day in In­dia, broth­ers and sis­ters take a dip in the Gan­ga.

It is in­deed an im­por­tant day for broth­ers and sis­ters. Broth­ers are marked on their fore­heads with tilak (what we re­fer to as tik­ka–a dot in the mid­dle of the fore­head) by their sis­ter(s) up­on ar­rival at the sis­ter's home. Af­ter rit­u­als are per­formed, the broth­er eats fruits or sweets to break his fast.

It is be­lieved that broth­ers and sis­ters cel­e­brate this day to at­tain sal­va­tion and go to heav­en af­ter their death. Broth­ers then gift sis­ters with jew­el­ry or clothes and sis­ters touch the feet of their broth­ers to ob­tain bless­ings.

On this day Goverd­han pu­ja is per­formed for the moun­tains and trees.

It is be­lieved that by per­form­ing this type of pu­ja the fields yield more crops, dis­eases stay away from the peo­ple and there is peace and hap­pi­ness every­where.

Di­vali is the biggest and bright­est of all Hin­du cel­e­bra­tions. In Trinidad, Hin­dus and non-Hin­dus all come to­geth­er and cel­e­brate this pe­ri­od with great pomp. It is a time of joy and to­geth­er­ness.