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The Deeper Meaning of Deepavali for Me, As a New Dad

Sometimes I wonder how much Malaysians actually know about Deepavali or Diwali, apart from it being the Festival of Lights? I am celebrating the day with my baby son for the first time this year, and to me, Deepavali symbolises so much more than just candles and lights. I guess that would be like thinking Christmas is all about Santa Claus.

At its core, it is about the symbolism of light as knowledge. From my understanding, it comes from the Vedic traditions of dealing with your own ignorance in life, similar to the Confucian idea of how being aware of your ignorance is the first step to real knowledge.

“Deepavali symbolises so much more than just candles and lights”. Source: Canva. 

The Diversity of Deepavali Celebrations

As there isn’t any ‘central committee’ or How-To guide in Hinduism, there’s a lot of cultural variety among the different communities in India and even the diaspora when it comes to celebrating Deepavali. Perhaps other Malaysians are not aware, but the Sindhis, Tamils, Punjabis, Gujaratis, Malayalees and other Indian ethnicities celebrate the festival differently.

For example, I’m from a tight-knit family from a community known for being tight-knit, the Sindhis. The Sindhis come from the North-West part of India, where it is called ‘Diwali’. As a kid growing up in a joint family, Diwali was fireworks with my cousins, visiting open houses, and grabbing up as many ang pau or karchi (money) packets as we could. There was also lots and lots of praying.

Lining up for prayers at the writer’s grandparents’ house, an integral part of Diwali for his family.

As we all got older, the fireworks and the visiting slowed down as everyone got busy, but the prayers remained. The first night of Diwali always happens at my grandparents’ place, it is sort of our ‘reunion dinner’. Now that my late grandmother isn’t around, we still gather and I hope we continue to do so for as long as we can.

The first day of Diwali, Dhanteras, is a very important day in the Hindu calendar. It’s a very auspicious festival, with a lot of cultural significance with regard to businesses and prosperity,  as the prayers are towards the Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and fortune.

Uniqueness and Similarities

I just stocked up on tealights at Ikea for one cultural practice my family follows – to ensure that there is always a light or a candle on in every room in the house at night, for 3 nights, so it is never fully dark. The idea is that we ‘help’ Lakshmi find the house, making it easier for her to come by and bless us.

If we have prayers in any business outlets, we always include a ceremonial ledger that needs blessing – there are a lot of money and fortune symbols around this period. This financial element is somewhat similar to the Chinese community’s wishes for auspiciousness during their new year.

The writer and his wife Serena (and little Hershey) during Diwali last year, before the birth of their son.

My little Yudhi is still super young, but I am hoping as he gets older, we can start to bring back some of the more fun and memorable elements for him and his cousins. Those beautiful memories of lighting fireworks and hanging around my family as a child were really core memories and I think it’s important that he have those experiences too. We are looking forward to dressing up in our finest baju and trying to soak it all in. Having the children around means there is more of an onus to ‘celebrate’ Diwali rather than just observing the religious elements of it, as that can get really overwhelming, and let’s face it, is not the most exciting or meaningful experience for a kid.

Lighting Up the Darkness in Life

When I think about what Diwali means to me, I also sometimes think about the Bhagavad Gita, the great Sanskrit poem or ‘Song of God’ or ‘Song of the Lord’ that make up the middle chapters of the ancient Hindu scripture the Mahabharata. The Gita asks all the tough questions; among which is how do you live life fully? What your responsibility is in life? Are you fulfilling your duty?

In this day and age of great strife and suffering, I do think it is so meaningful to look at the beauty of the symbolism of light and how we use it to fulfill our responsibility as human beings. It is a torch to ignite the passion to do what is right, it is the hopeful light in darkness that helps us smother ignorance and hate.

The writer and his son, Yudhi.

These things have always been important to me, but now as a father to my son, it is even more so. I am looking forward to enjoying the Festival of Lights with Yudhi, (as in Yudhishtra, a key figure of the Mahabharata) and teaching him that at its heart, this is also the Festival of Enlightenment.

Diwali Mubarak and a Happy Deepavali, everyone.

 

By Kubhaer T. Jethwani

Kubhaer T. Jethwani is a production and content consultant, film director, producer, and first assistant director. He is a member of the Five Arts Centre collective.

 

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