The Diwali Festival of Lights begins on Friday. Around the world, 1.5 billion Hindus enjoy the five-day holiday.
A few Hindus from the Chicago area spent the entire week getting ready for it.
From the hundreds, if not thousands, of different food varieties to the sparkles and glitter, the festival showcases the finest of the best.
For Diwali celebrants, this is the most festive time of year.
Chintan Patel, the owner of Indiaco, an Indian grocery store in Naperville, claims that business has increased by at least 50%.
Diwali is a festival of light, optimism, and the victory of good over evil. The largest Hindu celebration of the year is this one.
According to Patel, Hindus will pile their tables high with a wide variety of food, including a variety of sweets. He claimed that in order to buy everything they need for the holiday, some of his customers drive all the way from Wisconsin.
“In India, each and every house, they keep 15 to 20 Diyas and now people are also starting over here.”
The Diyas are little clay pots that are burned after being filled with oil. Hundreds of these will be in every home during the event, according to each family.
According to Krishna Bansal, Chairman of Indian Community Outreach, Lord Rama returned to a city ablaze with Diyas following his victory over evil. He claims that’s the reason Hindus always wear their finest clothing.
“The symbolic story behind it is, Lord Rama, he scored a victory over the demon’s evil Ravna and freed up the entire world,” Bansal explained.
It is preferable to have more colour and shine.
“Every day they want to wear like the cotton, but this is for the festival, the sparkle dresses,” Rekha Maheshwari of the Meena Bazaar remarked.
Trying to seem like a goddess is the aim. The event is really about welcoming guests into your home and spending quality time with them, despite all the glitter.
“Come up, come out. Meet your neighbors,” Bansal said. “This is a festival of love, light, happiness and brightness in life. It’s like darkness can go away.”