Diwali celebrations by site user Priya Mistry
Diwali is well known as the festival of lights and my family and I have been preparing for the occasion by cooking food, putting up decorations and getting outfits ready for the weekend's big celebrations.
ÌýTraditional Diwali food
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| Ìý |  | Preparing some of the food to be shared
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Making the food is a big part of my family’s celebrations because it is distributed between family members and friends.
We have two main foods that we make. There is the traditional Indian sweets known as metai and also the savoury snacks like sev mamra, chakree and googra.
Sharing these with everyone is a sign of well wishing and promotes the idea of sharing and receiving.
Another tradition that my family follows is buying new outfits for our new years day.
As well as outfits for ourselves we also get new outfits for the statues of our gods.
To go with them we also have tiny jewellery that we adorn our gods with. This is done to create the felling we are entering the new year in every aspect.
ÌýLighting up proceedings
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Along with the social side of Diwali there is also the religious aspect.
Five days before Diwali we begin to light the divas and place them at the ends of each door. This is to remind us of the story between Rama, Sita and the ten headed demon Ravaan.
It is also done to bring light and warmth into our new year.
| Ìý |  | Symbols of gods are not just decorative
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The night before our new year's day, we put up streamers and banners wishing everyone a happy and prosperous future.
We also make religious patterns outside our doors with a coloured powder called rangoli.
The patterns made are often religious symbols or portraits of gods. This is seen as a greeting to people and god as well as being decorative.
Later on in the night after the patterns have been made the family will get together to see in the new year.
We celebrate by eating some of the food that has been cooked and set-off fireworks too.
ÌýOn the Saturday, we will begin the festivities by bathing and dressing up in our new outfits, before praying to our gods.
We pray that we have a happy new year and that any previous wrong doings are forgiven.
After this we receive blessings from our parents and elders. We do this by bending down in the kneeling position until we have been blessed.
Often the elder person will then give a small gift or money, again as a sign to start us off well in the new year.
| Ìý |  | Some of the new outfits Priya will be wearing
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We then go to our close family's houses, and greet them with the traditional saying of sal mubaraak which translated means happy new year.
We then distribute all the sweets and savoury snacks that have been made.
In my family it is also customary to eat fish the family houses.
The rest of the day is spent in jubilation, meeting and greeting family and friends and wishing that the year to come will be a prosperous one.
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