Some of our colleagues across ELHT will be celebrating Diwali today, a five day festival which is celebrated by people of different faiths, including many Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims and Buddhists.
Diwali is often referred to as the Festival of Light for its bold light shows and fireworks that are used to commemorate the occasion, with many decorating their homes with lights and Rangolis – elaborate patterns made out of materials including rice, coloured sand and flowers.
To celebrate the occasion we spoke to Swati Sucharita, a Speciality Doctor in Acute Medicine at the Trust, about how she and her family celebrates the festival and what it means to her.
“My earliest memories from childhood are of Diwali fireworks, Diwali sweets (that's quite a lot by the way) and all the fun we had with cousins.
Hi. I am Swati Sucharita. I am Hindu by religion. And this is my blog about our brightest festival.
We have a lot of festivals, at least 10 times as much as other faiths do and the last two years have shown that we should celebrate and find reasons to be with family. Diwali brings a lot of joy. As a child my house used to be full of people who used to come to eat tasty curries and Puri which my mum made and they always came with sweets. In medical school I realised most diabetes got admitted with hyperglycaemic complications the day after Diwali - but that is a topic for another day.
There are a few stories related to this festival. I know of two of those. You must have heard about Rama killing Ravana and returning to Ayodhya with his wife Sita who had been kidnapped? The kingdom celebrated their return by lighting lamps to light their way. The other story is of Goddess Durga who returned after destroying Mahasura the demon and she needed to be calmed down after the killing spree. This was surprisingly done by God Shiva who is her husband...(husbands can calm us down? I guess Gods work in mysterious ways).
I have lived in the East, South and West of India and I was amazed at how different the concepts of this festival were. But they all have 2 things in common - we eat a lot and burst loads of firecrackers with lighting lamps. Some parts of India do colourful decorations on the floor called Rangoli whilst others pay respects to the departed souls of forefathers and foremothers. Some celebrate with Goddess Lakshmi who brings wealth. Whatever the mode, it always ends with sweets. Laddoos, barfis, katlis, gulabjamun, jalebis, recently chocolates too..... my mouth is watering already.
We decorate the house with string lights or traditional oil lamps in the evening. We burst some firecrackers and listen to Bollywood songs. We are most generous during this time and donate a lot too. We visit friends and exchange more sweets.
Some of us celebrate it over 5 days, almost like we never want it to end. We do get sick of sweets though and I usually stay away from them until Christmas. Then we have the Pongal or Makar Sankranti festival followed by Holi....the list continues.
Whatever our reason is to celebrate, we do so with aplomb. Diwali is the happiest time of the year.
May the little lamp show you the path of joy and success. I wish everyone a very happy and prosperous Diwali.”