Communities get together to soak in twin celebrations

Kolkata: Festive fervour filled the air since Friday as the city geared up for twin celebrations — both Kali Puja and Diwali — on Sunday. It’s quite a break from tradition as Kali Puja usually precedes Diwali by a day. So, while Bengalis got ready to welcome the demon-slaying Goddess,the Gujaratis, Rajasthanis, Kannadigas, Maharashtrians, Telugus, Tamilians, Malayalees, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists celebrated Diwali, the festival of lights.Many of these communities worshipped Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. The Gujaratis celebrate new year the day after Diwali.
Diyas, both earthen and the new battery-powered ones in different shapes and sizes, were sold not only by electric appliances stores but also by makeshift stalls at Burrabazar, Brabourne Road, Hatibagan, Chandni Chowk, New Market and Gariahat.
The word ‘Dipawali’ comes from ‘Deepa’ that means lamp. Chinese lamps strung together on lines have also flooded the market. “These sell for Rs 750 for a string of 1000 lamps, which is half the price of that of the small tuni bulb chains,” said Aman Islam, a seller on Lenin Sarani.
The mythological context is that Ram, on his return from 14 years of exile, was welcomed in Ayodhya by lighting of millions of lamps. The five-day celebration is observed every year in early autumn after the conclusion of the summer harvest and it coincides with the new moon, known as the ‘amāsvasya’ — the darkest night of the Hindu lunisolar calendar. The festivities begin two days before ‘amāsvasya’, on Dhanteras, and ends on the second day of the first fortnight of the month of ‘Kartika’. The Diwali night ends the lunar month of ‘Ashwin’ and starts the month of ‘Kartika’.
Diwali is also the festival of sweets, especially motichur laddoos that are gifted by almost all the north and west Indian communities. Kaju barfis and dry fruits in special gift packages were sold in top confectionery chains and these added colour to the festivities. “I throw caution to the winds and gorge on sweets on all the five days of festivities,” said Malati Agarwal, who runs a montessori school in Ballygunge. “We wait for Diwali the whole year. Cleaning of the house started quite early this year because we were expecting relatives from abroad,” said Kalpanaben Shah, owner of a boutique off Elgin Road.
Firecrackers were the flavour of the evening, though most people said they would respect the restrictions.
Kali Puja is more festive than religious in the city and hence it got even the Chinese Buddhists and Christians of Tangra to join the festivities. This has been happening for some time now in the Chinese Kali Temple in Tangra. It hosts idols of Kali and Lord Shiva. On the night of Kali Puja, the temple is decorated and the idols are worshipped with grandeur and ‘prasad’ is distributed. This is repeated during the Chinese New Year.
For the Sikhs, Diwali coincides with ‘Bandi Chhor Diwas’ and is important because it celebrates the release from Gwalior Fort of the sixth guru, Guru Hargobind Singh ji, and 52 other princes with him, in 1619. The Sikh tradition holds that when Jahangir offered freedom to Guru Hargobind Singhji, he refused to leave the fort until all 52 Rajput princes incarcerated there were freed as well. What followed added to the legend of the Sixth Guru, whose father Guru Arjan Devji, had been executed on Jahangir’s order around 13 years before.