On Mon­day, the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty will cel­e­brate Di­vali, the ‘fes­ti­val of lights’. Di­vali is an im­por­tant re­li­gious fes­ti­val in Hin­duism, Jain­ism and Sikhism. The name comes from San­skrit Deep­avali, mean­ing “row of lights.”

This fes­ti­val is cel­e­brat­ed on the dark­est day of the lu­nar month, the day of the new Moon. In many parts of In­dia, Di­vali is cel­e­brat­ed over a pe­ri­od of five days, mark­ing the start of the Hin­du New Year.

One of the joys of be­ing a T&T cit­i­zen, is the fact that we have learned over the years to em­brace and re­spect the rich di­ver­si­ty of our peo­ple who have come to T&T from many parts of the world—not as emp­ty ves­sels, but with their dif­fer­ent cul­tures, tra­di­tions, re­li­gions, and lan­guages. This di­ver­si­ty is a source of strength. T&T is a mod­el of cul­tur­al and re­li­gious har­mo­ny. Giv­en the many chal­lenges we face, let us pro­mote uni­ty in di­ver­si­ty, and build on what is com­mon among us.

What a won­der­ful op­por­tu­ni­ty we have to join in cel­e­brat­ing each oth­er’s re­li­gious fes­ti­vals and to build a cul­ture of tol­er­ance and in­clu­sion. I am no less a Catholic when I par­tic­i­pate in cel­e­brat­ing Di­vali. Hav­ing grown up in a home with a Hin­du fa­ther and Catholic moth­er, I learned ear­ly on that once I was root­ed in my faith, I could do as Gand­hi said and let “the cul­tures of all lands be blown about my house.”

Al­though Pa, Bal­go­b­in Ramdeen, died in 2016, we, his chil­dren, con­tin­ue to ho­n­our his mem­o­ry by fol­low­ing some Hin­du tra­di­tions at this time.

Hin­dus usu­al­ly en­gage in spring-clean­ing their homes in the lead-up to Di­vali. They wear new clothes on Di­vali, ex­change gifts among fam­i­ly and friends, light deyas in­side and out­side their homes, pre­pare veg­e­tar­i­an meals and sweets, which are shared. The menu in­cludes savoury foods such as dhal puri, roti, paratha, samosas, pa­neer, karhee, var­i­ous veg­etable dish­es, and desserts such as mo­han bhog/parsad, kheer (sweet rice), hal­wa, lad­doo, barfi, kur­ma, gu­lab ja­mun, jalebi, barfi, ras­gul­la and peera.

Busi­ness­es are gen­er­al­ly closed or close ear­ly on Di­vali, al­low­ing em­ploy­ees to cel­e­brate the fes­ti­val with their fam­i­lies. Prayer, which is at the cen­tre of the fes­ti­val, are of­fered up for an­ces­tors and to deities such as Lord Gane­sha, the re­mover of ob­sta­cles, and God­dess Lak­sh­mi, the de­ity of wealth and pros­per­i­ty.

There are dif­fer­ent rea­sons why Di­vali is cel­e­brat­ed. In T&T, many of us may have ex­pe­ri­enced Ram Leela over a 10-night pe­ri­od be­fore Di­vali. Ram Leela reen­acts the sto­ry of Lord Ra­ma and Si­ta, tak­en from the epic po­em, the Ra­mayana. Di­vali re­minds us of the day that Lord Ra­ma, his wife Si­ta and his broth­er Lak­sh­man re­turned to their home in Ay­o­d­hya af­ter 14 years in ex­ile, hav­ing de­feat­ed the de­mon king Ra­vana and res­cu­ing Si­ta, who had been ab­duct­ed by Ra­vana. The vil­lagers lit oil lamps along the road to wel­come them home.

Di­vali sym­bol­is­es the vic­to­ry of light over dark­ness, good over evil, and knowl­edge over ig­no­rance. In­ter­faith Min­is­ter, Rev. Ami Bhalod­kar, re­minds us that “On a more per­son­al lev­el...Di­vali is a time to turn in­ward and light the lamps of knowl­edge and truth in our hearts and minds so that we can dis­pel the forces of dark­ness and ig­no­rance with­in us and al­low our in­nate bril­liance and good­ness to shine forth.”

She right­ly says that this hol­i­day is “a cel­e­bra­tion of our in­ner light and a time to cul­ti­vate spir­i­tu­al wealth. Di­vali is a time to re­flect on and eval­u­ate our thoughts, words, and ac­tions over the past year. It is a time to ac­knowl­edge and bet­ter un­der­stand our prej­u­dices, neg­a­tive be­hav­iours, and bad habits so that we may be­gin the process of trans­form­ing our­selves. It is a time to dis­cov­er how we can be more lov­ing, kind, re­spect­ful, and skil­ful to­wards our­selves and oth­ers. And since all wealth, be it ma­te­r­i­al or spir­i­tu­al, should be shared with oth­ers who are less for­tu­nate, Di­vali is al­so a time to re­flect on the var­i­ous ways we can as­sist oth­ers and shine our light out in­to the world.”

Chris­tians, re­mem­ber Je­sus’ words: “Let your light shine be­fore oth­ers, that they may see your good deeds and glo­ri­fy your Fa­ther in heav­en”(Matthew 5:16).

May the cel­e­bra­tion of Di­vali fill our hearts with love and re­spect for each oth­er, as we em­brace our com­mon hu­man­i­ty and strive to live in peace and har­mo­ny with each oth­er.

Hap­py Di­vali!