Q: What do you celebrate on this day?
A: Diwali* is a Holiday/ festival like no other in the World. Literally, Diwali, a short form of Deepawali means a row of Lamps. Many say it is like Christmas. Maybe. It is similar to the importance. It is a time to clean and make the house like new. It is a time to wear new clothes. To exchange gifts. To Light up the House. To make sweets and lots of good things to eat. To pray. To distribute clothes, food and gifts to the needy. To light up the inner soul. Not just the House. And so much more---- The only thing that all love is the Fireworks. Diwali and fireworks go together. Cannot have one without the other. But we want the Earth to be Green. So it is dampening people when we propose that we pollute less each Diwali*. Crackers cannot be banned yet. But requests are floated to use less and less. And a lot of truly educated people do not burn crackers. I can go on and on. I hope you can come to India to see what Diwali* really is.