Diwali the festival of light is almost nearing and everyone is getting ready this time to make it a grand celebration better than the last year's.
Travel plans are on the card for many and the joy of festivity in the native place that too along with all the family members is a memory that we cherish for a life time.
Here in Tamil Nadu, the preparations for Deepavali begins a bit early than any other festival. Next to Pongal &Sankranthi festival, Diwali is the one that demands new set of dresses for each and every member of the family. So, the Diwali shopping starts a bit early itself and followed by two or three rounds to the Tailor shop. If everyone got a ready made garment then this job is half done. But that never happens, and the rounds to tailor shop is mandatory.
Next to dresses comes sweets and snacks and the crackers. Sweets and snacks are prepared in a day or two in advance to the festival. There are many shops and catering suppliers who take the work of preparing hot &sweet exclusively for this festival. Many people order from these famous shops. With regard to crackers many stopped bursting crackers and few buy it for the sake of children. They buy it as soon as the shops are placed and that too before rain. Many children finish it off before the day of the festival. Some people buy gold &sliver jewellery too on the occasion of the upcoming festival. But that set of people is very minimal here in Tamil Nadu.
Apart from all these, make over of the house is carried out by many. As a customary practice cleaning, repairs, white wash and paintings are mostly done during harvest festival only. But a few treat Diwali next to Pongal and start making certain make over now and the rest will be done during Pongal.
* Earthen lamps are placed and lit through out the house. Electric bulbs and decorative ones are used very less. To place these lamps, almost every household has a compartment like place, to safely place the lamp and it will glow well without the disturbance of the air. These are first checked and cleaned for the festival.
Old sliver or brass lamps are taken out and cleaned well in advance.
*Mango leaves are tied together and made like Thoran, a hanging decorative (Festoons) and hung in the main entrance of the house. This is essential item for every festival. For these the hooks or nails are checked and if broken, new ones will be fixed.
* All the idols of God and goddess made out of gold, sliver, brass ,bronze are dusted and checked for any damage. These are cleaned with silvo & brasso scrubs and photographs of the God &Goddess are also removed from the walls and double checked for any termites or torn features. If so, they will be discarded and new one will be brought on an auspicious day before the festival.
*Coming to the garlands, most house holds tie the flowers/ prepare garland on their own rather than buying. They grow flowers in their houses or else buy the plucked flowers and both the ladies &gents tie them with other different flowers and offer the garland to the God. with multi colored flowers the garland looks stunning. Here you see a simple method of tying a single colour flowers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSgs1x3pbCU
*Next is checking the flooring for putting traditional Rangoli with rice flour or batter. For an even surface the flooring is adjusted with cement paste and the ups &downs are corrected.
*Wooden planks are checked for their fitness and cleaned well. On this each one will sit to apply oil on his head on the festival day.
*Good amount of new earthen lamps, oil, ghee, incense sticks, long cotton wicks, camphor and other pooja needs are ordered and bought in for the festival.
With these arrangements almost the house is ready for the festival. with lot of joy and happiness all the
families celebrate this festival of light with much pomp &gaiety.
Diwali is certainly the grandest festival amongst all.
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