Session# 5:
Festival of Lights- Diwali: Gender and Family
Speaker: Ms.
Meera Rhoria
Ms Meera Rhoria was the speaker for the
seminar on Diwali. She explained that, like Lunar New Year is one of the most important festivals
in Chinese societies, the equivalent festival for Indians Is Diwali.
Diwali is also called
the festival of lights. It is the biggest
and most important festival of the year, and it gets its name from the row of oil
lamps that Indians put outside their homes for the festival. These lights symbolize the inner light that protects people from
spiritual darkness. It originated as a celebration that marks the last harvest of
the year before winter. That is to say, the day after Diwali is the beginning
of a new financial year. Thus, it is sometimes known as the Indian New Year.
Ms
Rhoria said that if you travel to India during Diwali, you
will have a very special experience-- lots of stores will be closed, but you will
find tons of beautiful lights outside the homes.
Indians
celebrate Diwali with family gatherings, glittering clay lamps, festive
fireworks, strings of electric light bulbs, flowers, sweets, and of course the worship of Lakshmi—the
goddess of wealth. Like the Chinese worship Choi Sun (the god of
wealth), Indians
believe
that Lakshmi wanders the Earth looking for homes where she will be welcomed.
People open their doors, windows, and most importantly, turn on the lights to invite Lakshmi in.
Meera also
discussed how Diwali is related to gender relations and the concept of the
family in Indian culture. While the celebration of Diwali symbolizes the importance of the family in
Indian culture, the preparation work for
Diwali reflects some of the gender preferences in Indian culture—women take
care of the
private sector, whereas men take care of the public sector. For Diwali, it is women who do most of the cooking and decoration,
while men only occasionally help out.
Meera
brought with her a silver chest and various decorations used for the altar at
home, and demonstrated for us how the religious rituals are carried out in
Indian homes. She explained that offerings are put in
front of the family altar, or in front of the statue or picture of the goddess. These include flowers, fresh
fruits, nuts, and sweets. Sweets, especially desserts made with flour, rice, and sugar are
most
important, as Indians believe that gods and goddesses love sweetness. As they offer
the sweets to the goddess, worshippers pray to her for blessings throughout the
year.
At
the altar of Diwali, there are some gold or silver coins. Meera reminded
us that this should not be
misunderstood as praying for money or
being a bribe for the goddess. In fact, these coins or gold pieces are used to symbolize
the rewards or results of hard work, which indeed share the same meaning as fruits and other offerings. People use them to thank the
goddess
for her blessings that have led
them to success.
 |
| Ms. Meera Rhoria (front, 3rd from left) sharing on the cultural meaning of Diwali—the festival of lights |
No comments:
Post a Comment