Diwali Festival is celebrated all over India on October. Normally India is having thousands of local festivals according to local culture and traditions. India is truly a diversified country with multiplies languages and different cultures in various parts of India. Since the Indian civilization is one of the oldest and evolved from different parts of India and joined the festivals very different from one place to another.

Diwali is the Universal Festival of India:

If we study the Festivals of India, we can see lot of variations in the festivals from south to north and east to west. In Kerala you can find onam, in Tamilnadu you can find Pongal,Telegu new year in Andhra Pradesh, Pohela Baishakh in Bengal, Baisakhi Festival for Sikhs etc. Almost all of this festival is totally unknown to states than it is celebrating. In addition, we can see the same festival is celebrated in different parts of the country on same day with different legend.  In addition, the celebration will be different. However, the Diwali (Deepavali) is celebrated across the India in every state irrespective of culture and Languages. This makes Deepavali as a universal festival of India.

Deepavali the festival of lights:

Diwali is not the original or correct name of this festival. The correct name of the festival is Deepavali (I think only in Kerala still they use the correct name) and the word Diwali is a short form of Deepavali.Deepam means is the flame of lamp in almost all languages in India. Therefore, as the name suggests on deepavali day the houses will be celebrated with lighted lamps all over India. The temples also will be decorated with lamps and will have a divine look for Diwali. Therefore, as the name suggests we can see on Deepavali day that all houses are decorated with lighted lamps in all over India.Another Tradition is Diwali sweets, which will be prepared and distributed to nears, and dears by every family.

The Story of Diwali:

As normal to other Indian festival diwali also got more than one legend attached to it. As normal in Indian festival diwali also point to Hindu Religion.

1. 1. Lord Rama returning to Ayodya:-The most famous legend behind the celebrations of Diwali is about Return of Lord Sri Rama (Prince of Ayodya) to Ayodhya after Winning Rama-Ravana war. Lord Ram was staying in forest with his wife Sitadevi for 14 years to full fill his father’s Promise given to one of his wife. At that time The Demon king Ravana of Sri lanka has kidnapped the sitadevi. Therefore, Sri Ramachandra conducted the war with the help of monkey soldiers and won the war. He returned to Ayodhya with his wife Sita and younger brother Lakshmana after completing the promise. To celebrate the joy of this occasion people of Ayodhya decorated their home with lamps to show the love and affection to their Prince. Therefore, from there people of Ayodya started decorating their home with deepam on that day of every year.

1. 1. Incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi: Once upon a Time The Devas and demons the churning of the ocean, which is known as ‘Samudra Mathan’ by the demons on one side and ‘Devas’ on the other side. Samudra mathan was done in order to extract ‘Amruth’ from underneath of sea, which will help you to live forever. People believe that Goddess Lakshmi (of wealth and prosperity), was incarnated before Amruth from sea on samudra mathan, on the auspicious new moon day, which is ‘Amavasya’ of the Hindi month of Kartik.

1. 1. Lord Krishna Killed Narakasura: Narakasur was the demon king ruler of Pragjyotishpur, in South of Nepal. He had defeated lord Indra the king of Heaven. He stole the magnificent earrings of aditi Devi Indras Mother. Narakasura also imprisoned thousands of daughters of gods and saints. Lord Indra was a relative of Lord Krishna’s one wife Sathya Bhama.  Lord Krishna defeated narakasura and freed all women from his jail. To celebrate this occasion people decorated their houses with Lamps.

1. 1. Pandavas Returning: – Kauravas (cousins of Pandavas) cheated Pandavas on the game of dice and won. As a result pandavas had to go to forest for thirteen years and should live in absconding for one year. If Kauravas was able to identify them in absconding period, they have to repeat another 13 years in Forest. Pandavas Successfully Completed this and returned to their country to rule again. People all over their Kingdom celebrated this occasion with lamps placed all over the house