Kaarthigai in Tamil Nadu is celebrated just the same way Deepawali is celebrated everywhere in Northern India. This festival of lamps is known by the name of Dev Diwali in Gujarat & Banaras. They say Dev Diwali in Banaras is simply one of its kind & one must be a witness to this beautiful festival of lamps in Banaras at least once in one's lifetime on the banks of sacred River Ganga.
Since this is a sparkling Indian festival of lamps, sacred traditional oil lamps, both brass and clay, have an indispensable place in the celebration of this festival of lights. Want to buy some of these ethnic lamps for your living rooms?
Since this is a sparkling Indian festival of lamps, sacred traditional oil lamps, both brass and clay, have an indispensable place in the celebration of this festival of lights. Want to buy some of these ethnic lamps for your living rooms?
The grand celebration of sparkling Karthigai / Dev Diwali :
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
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| Dev Diwali in Banaras / Varanasi India |
I have a feeling, every region in India celebrates this festival of lamps in its own way on the sacred day of Kaarthik Poornima. People take a holy dip on this sacred day in holy rivers in many parts of Northern India.
Not just for Hindus, this day is very special in Sikh dominated Punjab also. Sikh Guru Guru Nanak Dev was born on this sacred day & Sikhs around the globe celebrate Guru Poorab in their holy shrines Gurudwaras on this day. One should just not miss the 'Guru Kaa Langar' in Gurudwaaras on the day of Guru Poorab. The simple & lavish pure vegetarian lunch at Gurudwaras on this auspicious day is truly one of its kind. All the devotees visiting Gurudwaara on this day take part in community cooking in the common kitchen of the holy shrine.
Karthigai was a festival, I simply loved as a child, helping my mother light hundreds of lamps all over the house and its surrounding areas. This was followed by joyous cracker bursting with whatever leftover crackers we had after Deepawali celebrations. I was under the impression that only Tamilians celebrate this beautiful festival of countless lamps just like the popular Deepawali festival of India. Only later in life, after having stayed in every corner of India, during my husband's tenure in the Indian Armed Forces Medical Corps, I realised that this festival is not unique of TamilNadu alone. Many other states in India too celebrate this festival under different names, including Sikhs who call it Guru Poorab or Guru Nanak's birthday.
Karthigai was a festival, I simply loved as a child, helping my mother light hundreds of lamps all over the house and its surrounding areas. This was followed by joyous cracker bursting with whatever leftover crackers we had after Deepawali celebrations. I was under the impression that only Tamilians celebrate this beautiful festival of countless lamps just like the popular Deepawali festival of India. Only later in life, after having stayed in every corner of India, during my husband's tenure in the Indian Armed Forces Medical Corps, I realised that this festival is not unique of TamilNadu alone. Many other states in India too celebrate this festival under different names, including Sikhs who call it Guru Poorab or Guru Nanak's birthday.
Karthigai is known as Dev Deepawali in Banaras / Varanasi & is truly one of its kind in India. I always wanted to visit Varanasi just for witnessing this breathtaking festival of lamps. And am still eagerly waiting for the opportunity someday.
Dev Deepavali , "The Diwali of the Gods" or "Festival of Lights of the Gods" is the festival celebrated on Kartik Poornima day in Varanasi. It falls on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Kartika and takes place after fifteen days of Diwali. The steps of all the River Ghats on the riverfront of the Ganges River in Banaras, from Ravidas Ghat at the southern end to Rajghat, are lit with more than a million earthen lamps in honour of sacred River Ganga, and its presiding Goddess. The Hindu Gods are believed to descend on Earth for a holy dip in the Ganges on this auspicious day.
During Dev Deepawali, houses are decorated with oil lamps in and around the house and colourful Rangolee (Welcoming colored designs) on the front entrance doors. Firecrackers are burst at night, processions of decorated deities are taken out into the streets of Varanasi, and oil lamps are set afloat on the river.
Evening Ganga Aarti is offered every evening on the banks of Ganga
The 5 day festival starts on Prabodhini Ekadashi and concludes on Kartik Poornima.
This festival in Varanasi is a major tourist attraction, and the sight of millions of lamps, lighting the Ghats and river in vivid colors have often been described by visitors and tourists as a breathtaking sight. On the night of the festival, thousands of devotees from across the country gather in the evening on the Ghats of the Ganges to watch the amazingly beautiful Ganga Aarti. The local government makes several intensive security arrangements to ensure law & order during the festival.
( Disclaimer : All images featured in this Blog-post, are the property of their respective owners. Our deepest sense of gratitude to all of them for making this gigantic project a reality. If you see your picture anywhere in this Blog and don't want it here, send us a message with the details and the link to the picture, and we will remove it right away. But at the outset, I just want to let my dearest readers know, that the noble purpose of this Blog, is to promote 'The Glorious Cultural Heritage of India' worldwide, to every nook & corner of the planet, and I would immensely love to see every single one of us, of Indian origin, passionately participating in this Mega-Project. I am right now in the process of adding the web-links to the sources of the innumerable images in this Blog. Till the work reaches completion, I would request the readers to use 'Google Image Search' to trace the source / multiple sources of these images on the web. The rich text contents througout this blog are based on well-researched aggregated and curated content from innumerable sources. But mostly and most importantly, these contents are based on my own personal experience of untiringly exploring the glorious cultural heritage India, and the ageless timeless ethnic arts, crafts, textiles, temples etc of the whole of India, during my stay across the length and breadth of this vast expansive Indian subcontinent for more than 5 decades of my long adventurous life. I have expressed my deepest gratitude to all the text sources on the 'World-Wide-Web', that have hugely contributed and added to my existing database of knowledge on this subject, by inserting appropriate hyperlinks throughout this blog, to connect my ardent readers from across the globe, to these rich sources of information on India's heritage. So Long, Mala Chandrashekhar )
Dev Deepavali , "The Diwali of the Gods" or "Festival of Lights of the Gods" is the festival celebrated on Kartik Poornima day in Varanasi. It falls on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Kartika and takes place after fifteen days of Diwali. The steps of all the River Ghats on the riverfront of the Ganges River in Banaras, from Ravidas Ghat at the southern end to Rajghat, are lit with more than a million earthen lamps in honour of sacred River Ganga, and its presiding Goddess. The Hindu Gods are believed to descend on Earth for a holy dip in the Ganges on this auspicious day.
During Dev Deepawali, houses are decorated with oil lamps in and around the house and colourful Rangolee (Welcoming colored designs) on the front entrance doors. Firecrackers are burst at night, processions of decorated deities are taken out into the streets of Varanasi, and oil lamps are set afloat on the river.
Evening Ganga Aarti is offered every evening on the banks of Ganga
The 5 day festival starts on Prabodhini Ekadashi and concludes on Kartik Poornima.
This festival in Varanasi is a major tourist attraction, and the sight of millions of lamps, lighting the Ghats and river in vivid colors have often been described by visitors and tourists as a breathtaking sight. On the night of the festival, thousands of devotees from across the country gather in the evening on the Ghats of the Ganges to watch the amazingly beautiful Ganga Aarti. The local government makes several intensive security arrangements to ensure law & order during the festival.
( Disclaimer : All images featured in this Blog-post, are the property of their respective owners. Our deepest sense of gratitude to all of them for making this gigantic project a reality. If you see your picture anywhere in this Blog and don't want it here, send us a message with the details and the link to the picture, and we will remove it right away. But at the outset, I just want to let my dearest readers know, that the noble purpose of this Blog, is to promote 'The Glorious Cultural Heritage of India' worldwide, to every nook & corner of the planet, and I would immensely love to see every single one of us, of Indian origin, passionately participating in this Mega-Project. I am right now in the process of adding the web-links to the sources of the innumerable images in this Blog. Till the work reaches completion, I would request the readers to use 'Google Image Search' to trace the source / multiple sources of these images on the web. The rich text contents througout this blog are based on well-researched aggregated and curated content from innumerable sources. But mostly and most importantly, these contents are based on my own personal experience of untiringly exploring the glorious cultural heritage India, and the ageless timeless ethnic arts, crafts, textiles, temples etc of the whole of India, during my stay across the length and breadth of this vast expansive Indian subcontinent for more than 5 decades of my long adventurous life. I have expressed my deepest gratitude to all the text sources on the 'World-Wide-Web', that have hugely contributed and added to my existing database of knowledge on this subject, by inserting appropriate hyperlinks throughout this blog, to connect my ardent readers from across the globe, to these rich sources of information on India's heritage. So Long, Mala Chandrashekhar )
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