Happy Deepavali | 2015

Hello my beautiful friends,

I have been quite quiet this week as so much time went into preparing festival of lights! So i decided to share some good energy and lovely pictures to my wordpress peeps! Deepavali is derived from Sanskrit language which loosely translates to series of lights. Deepavali is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs and some Buddhist citing various historical events pining on the date. However,they all have something in common which is to symbolize the “victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair.”

There are many versions across India. But in TamilNadu (where my ancestors hail from ), it is said to be the day Lord Krishna defeats Narakasura (demon) that was tormenting the people on earth. The day where their many years of misery is finally lifted and became deepavali , a celebration with lights, firecrackers and sweets !

So it all begins with preparation with spring cleaning ,decoration, making of savory sweets and getting new clothes 😀

Cookies!

Who celebrates without some awesome snacks. Its a tradition to make home made cookies/sweets to bring in the festive season and definitely foster some family bonding!

                

                         Kesari                                                                                      Spritz cookies – Cherry

Muruku

Almond London

Deco!

It’s no where near deepavali without some good decorated house, especially with lights. Though it’s mainly small flats in Singapore so much can be done in a small crib. It’s traditional folk art to have rice flour kolam / rangoli patterns to welcome the guests (and to bring good luck) for most major Indian festivals.

        

                                       Rangoli                                                                                  Light it up!

flowers deco

Festive Day

It’s a custom to take your bath with gingelly oil (sesame oil) with shiakkai (Acacia concinna – an ayurvedic medicinal plant) hair powder. It is believed that Goddess Mahalaksmi resides in these on deepavali day (so be sure to get her blessings!). After the festive bath, children and adults will adorn the new clothes that was placed in the alter for blessing. It will usually have a little dab of tumeric applied on the new clothes by family elders. The reason being turmeric has anti bacterial properties to ward off bacteria that might be on the clothes. And tumeric and kumkuma powder is used for hindu rituals as it is deemed as auspicious product. After family prayers the celebration begins with good food, energy and laughter!

OOTD 

Firecrackers

Hope you guys had a wonderful week and I would like to take this opportunity to wish my Hindu readers a very HAPPY DEEPAVALI! 😀