10 reasons y we celebrate Diwali

The Festival of Lights is for All

Why do we celebrate Diwali? It’s not just the festive mood in the air that makes you happy, or just that it's a good time to enjoy before the advent of winter. There are 10 mythical and historical reasons why Diwali is a great time to celebrate. And there are good reasons not just for Hindus but also for all others to celebrate this great Festival of Lights.




1. Goddess Lakshmi’s Birthday: The Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi incarnated on the new moon day (amaavasyaa) of the Kartik month during the churning of the ocean (samudra-manthan), hence the association of Diwali with Lakshmi.

2. Vishnu Rescued Lakshmi: On this very day (Diwali day), Lord Vishnu in his fifth incarnation as Vaman-avtaara rescued Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali and this is another reason of worshipping Ma Lakshmi on Diwali.

3. Krishna Killed Narakaasur: On the day preceding Diwali, Lord Krishna killed the demon king Narakaasur and rescued 16,000 women from his captivity. The celebration of this freedom went on for two days including the Diwali day as a victory festival.

4. The Return of the Pandavas: According to the great epic ‘Mahabharata’, it was ‘Kartik Amavashya’ when the Pandavas appeared from their 12 years of banishment as a result of their defeat in the hands of the Kauravas at the game of dice (gambling). The subjects who loved the Pandavas celebrated the day by lighting the earthen lamps.

5. The Victory of Rama: According to the epic ‘Ramayana’, it was the new moon day of Kartik when Lord Ram, Ma Sita and Lakshman returned to Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravana and conquering Lanka. The citizens of Ayodhya decorated the entire city with the earthen lamps and illuminated it like never before.


6. Coronation of Vikramaditya: One of the greatest Hindu King Vikramaditya was coroneted on the Diwali day, hence Diwali became a historical event as well.

7. Special Day for the Arya Samaj: It was the new moon day of Kartik (Diwali day) when Maharshi Dayananda, one of the greatest reformers of Hinduism and the founder of Arya Samaj attained his nirvana.

8. Special Day for the Jains: Mahavir Tirthankar, considered to be the founder of modern Jainism also attained his nirvana on Diwali day.


9. Special Day for the Sikhs: The third Sikh Guru Amar Das institutionalized Diwali as a Red-Letter Day when all Sikhs would gather to receive the Gurus blessings. In 1577, the foundation stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was laid on Diwali. In 1619, the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind, who was held by the Mughal Emperor Jahengir, was released from the Gwalior fort along with 52 kings.

10. The Pope’s Diwali Speech: In 1999, Pope John Paul II performed a special Eucharist in an Indian church where the altar was decorated with Diwali lamps, the Pope had a ‘tilak’ marked on his forehead and his speech was bristled with references to the festival of light

wow......great info..., thank you, anchal.

da source plz...

i celebrate diwali coz mummy teach me that

u sound like a very practical guy rishi ..better to be like that ..than researching everthing n cracking our head.

i agree

wat would u do wen a person frm diff race ask u 'Y U CELEBRATE DEEPAVALI?'...r u gona answer like tiz...'I CELEBRATE CUZ OTHER PPL CELEBRATE IT'?

i would say, its a long story, i cant remember

and then, i'll refer the person to a more knowledgeble person on the issue.

or u ask them to google for diwali ...wikipedia says it all

~Anchal~ wrote:or u ask them to google for diwali ...wikipedia says it all

not all ppl r computer literate

anchal, to say find urself could be a bit rude yar..

We can give some simple explanation and then refer them to certain websites for better and through details.

rishi wrote:anchal, to say find urself could be a bit rude yar..

eeeerrr... I mean we say it properly ..maybe if they read it thru they will understand it better ..like miru said ..maybe we could say the basic .. then ask them too google for further information

ok all,
if the situation comes, how do we actually explain to other races wat is deepavali n y we celebrate that festival??

anchal babe, since you are from Inderalogam....

Maybe you can come up with some great answer......simple but understandable.......and all of us would stick to it....

hehehehe.. no need to stick with this, I maybe wrong ..
but this is the answer I gave to my MD ( a chinese man) when he asked me this question

A bad man called narasuran was destroying the earths peace, then the god took krishna avatar n destroys him... so when he was bout to die, he regreted n asked everybody to celebrate the day as festival of lights.. as the darkness disappears.

n this naragasuran is actually lord vishnu's security guard, once there was a moonivar wants to visit lord vishnu.. n he didn't allow, bcos lord vishnu taking rest ..he was curced by the moonivar..he was given a chooice if to be born as a good man for seven lives then be back to lord vishnu.. or one jenmam as arakan n return to lord vishnu... he picked to be bad n return sooner to him....so he was cursed to turn into naragasuran

am I right?

hey....i never heard about this.....hmmmm......

what anchal said is true...there is a legend as such for why we celebrate deepavali.

please correct me if i am wrong

i heard similar stuff as achal did too.

rishi wrote:i heard similar stuff as achal did too.

achal? did u mean achar?

don't Eat me!!! don't eat me!!!

no human eating pls