Diwali - the Indian festival of lights

Unfortunately, sweat-shops of young children are the major production houses in the country. Most of them come from the southern regions of India.

Fireworks include rockets, bombs, flower pots and many more.

Often cola or liquor bottles are used as launch-pads for the rockets and blown from atop residential buildings' terraces. Unlike western countries, there are no restrictions for bursting crackers in India.

In fact, often these same fireworks are also used when the Indian cricket team wins a match or during new year celebrations...

Patent number: 619177
Filing date: Nov 26, 1898
Issue date: Feb 1899
Inventor: JOHN EGBERT HINTON
Assignee: MASON ROMAINE AND ORLANDO G

For more information click here to visit the Google Patents Page...

As with other Indian festivals, Diwali signifies many different things to people across the country.

In North India, Diwali celebrates Rama's homecoming, his return to Ayodhya after the defeat of Ravana and his coronation as king; in Gujarat, the festival honours Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth; and in Bengal, it is associated with the goddess Kali.

For Jains, the day commemorates the passing into Nirvana of Mahavira, the most recent of the Jain Tirthankaras, or saints. The lighting of the lamps is explained as a material substitute for the light of holy knowledge that was extinguished with Mahavira's passing.

Everywhere, it signifies the renewal of life, and so it is the done thing to wear new clothes on the day of the festival. It seems to have begun as a harvest festival, yet, as the beginning of the lunar New Year, it heralds the approach of winter and the beginning of a new sowing season.

A young second generation Indian in the US was asked by his mother to explain the significance of "Diwali" to his younger brother, this is how he went about it...

" So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him. But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a b*tch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something... Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so.. he decided to get his wife and his bro along... you know...so that they could all chill out together. But Dude, the forest was reeeeal scary sh*t... really man... they had monkeys and devils and sh*t like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked @$$ with darts and bows and arrows... so it was fine.

But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Laxman, pissed... And you don't piss this son-of-a-gun cuz, he just kicks @$$ and like... all the gods were with him... So anyways,you don't mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys.. Dude, don't ask me how they trained the damn monkeys... just go along with me, ok... ..

so, Ram, Lax and their monkeys whip this gangsta's @$$ in his own hood. Anyways, by this time, their time's up in the forest..and anyways...it gets kinda boring,you know... no TV or malls or sh*t like that. So,they decided to hitch a ride back home... and when the people realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home... they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice... and they didn't have any bars or clubs in those days... so they couldn't take them out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and sh*t...and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also... so it was pretty cooool... you know with all those fireworks... Really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks... and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding.., that was the very first music-synchronized fireworks... you know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started."