Festival of Lights - the real one and...dimming!

No, Not Diwali!

Another demon slain by another god resulted in this festival - Krithikai Deepam - celebrated predominantly in Tamil Nadu in December.

Imagine the entire villages, towns and cities lit up by small earthen lamps just after sunset almost at the same time all over the State! 

You could see these lights everywhere, house entrance, window panes, terraces, steps, roof tops...right from the smallest of huts to the tallest of houses!

I love this festival unlike any other for the simple reason that it transports me magically to a different (old) world each year during those few hours...

Pre UPS days (Uninterrupted Power Supply - Battery backup systems), this was the only day (er...night) where a power-cut would be gladly welcome by people. Such is the joy that the light brings in...

The socio economics behind this festival (and so many such festivals including Vinayaka Chadhurthi) is quite impressive and unique to our culture / country. Vinayaka Chadhurthi is celebrated in September end and Krithikai Deepam in December. Typically, the sowing season in TN starts around October and the months prior to the season tanks, rivers and lakes are de-silted and the clay from these form the raw material for the idols / lamps made for these festivals. 

Artisans start making Vinayaka Idols just before Monsoon, followed by Earthen Lamps followed by Pots (for storing water particularly during the Summer months that start in January and extends till September...actually they get work year around from a simple and essential act of cleaning up our water storage sources - you see the beautiful manner by which the whole act is woven into a 'way of life' thing?)

Photo from The Hindu News Paper

Sadly many such livelihood oriented way-of-life festivals are taken over by synthetic (even aluminium) material and machines. As a consequence, the people whose bread and butter depend on the clay based creative stuff end up hauling bricks in construction sites / cleaning tables and vessels in restaurants. 

Is this PROGRESS?

PS: I wanted to write about this in December itself but the farmer in me became quite busy for the past few months in farming work and hence this delayed post :-)