India Celebrates Festival of Lights Diwali as COVID-19 Pandemic Eases
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4 November 2021 22:29 WIB
Those who lost their near and dear ones in past 19 months, especially during the second wave of the pandemic earlier this year, are still in mourning and not in a celebratory mood.
"I lost my mother in April this year during the second COVID-19 wave. The mourning period lasts one year. My family would not be celebrating Diwali festival this year as a mark of respect to our mother," said Sumit Malhotra, a resident of Gurugram, a town in northern state of Haryana adjoining Delhi.
One of the major festivals in India, Diwali is celebrated by almost all sections of the Indian society which otherwise has a wide religious and cultural diversity across the length and breadth of the country.
The festival is mostly associated with cleaning and decorating the houses with multi-colour lights and earthen lamps and praying for wealth and prosperity before "Goddess Laxmi" - the goddess of wealth.
To mark the occasion, people exchange sweets and gifts among relatives, neighbours and friends.
Indians also indulge in a lot of shopping ahead of Diwali as markets and shopping complexes are full to capacity promising a brisk business for the shop-owners.
Sensing high turnover of sales around Diwali, big corporates, particularly automotive companies, and other business establishments offer huge discounts to attract customers in a bid to maximise their sales.