Diwali Amavasya

For South Indians, Amavasya fell on the day after Diwali, this time. This Amavasya is the darkest one in the year. Placing oil lamps at strategic places in our home early in the morning is very important. On this day, offering Tarpana (sesame water) to Pitrus is also very important. Some people perform Tila Homa on this day.

For both South as well as North Indians, there is a faith that Goddess Lakshmi travels throughout the earth on this day. At the time of dusk or the time of Godhooli (when cows return home from grazing), we place oil lamps all over the house to worship Goddess Lakshmi and place Her idols at the pooja place for worship.

Drawing color rangoli is an important part of Lakshmi Pooja during Diwali. North Indians place Lord Ganesha also with Goddess Lakshmi to worship. We also performed a simple pooja at home. I am sharing the photograph here. Designer oil lamps are available in the markets of North India. We can light these oil lamps and also perform pooja to them.

In North India, Goddess Lakshmi is also worshipped in shops and other business houses. They perform pooja to the account books and the money-box.

There is a story about this festival. I will share the same in the next post.

To be continued…