THE happy season of Diwali is with us again. Diwali comes in the lunar month of Kartick and when this is translated into a solar year, it will fall in October and November. Easter uses the lunar calendar; similarly, it usually falls between March and April when translated into the solar year. Paradoxically, Guyana, one of the youngest countries in the world, celebrates one of the most ancient festivals known to human beings. The origins of Diwali are lost in the mists of time, but it goes back to at least 3,000 years and over these years, various explanations of its origin have become attached to it. In this offering, we shall review three of the most known in Guyana.

There was a terrible demon named Narakasura who terrorised the inhabitants of both heaven and earth. He had practised the most stringent disciplines and austerities and was able to develop divine powers to the extent that no one could have killed him except his mother. Among the terrors he inflicted on the world was his kidnapping of 16,000 young women. Eventually, the people implored Lord Vishnu for help, but he could offer no help on his own. He promised them he would incarnate as Lord Krishna, who will have as his wife, Satyabhama. In a clash between Krishna and Narakasura, Satyabhama shot him with her arrows, eliminating him. Krishna explained that Satyabhama was Narakasura’s mother incarnate. The world then became free of criminality and the darkness of Narakasura’s presence. It was also a lesson to the world that women could do whatever men could do. Diwali celebrates the destruction of that demon.

The other legend is that Diwali is devoted to the worship of Mahalaxmi, both as represented in her usual icon where from one of her hands a steady stream of gold sovereigns fall, signifying wealth and as Dhanwantri signifying health and wellbeing. On the five nights of Diwali, Laxmi is worshipped and invoked as the dispenser of wealth, health and learning. In Guyana, she is popularly worshipped and Diwali is closely associated with her.

The third legend, which is all pervasive in Guyana, concerns Lord Rama. Lord Rama was heir to the throne of the kingdom of Ayodhya, but his stepmother, one of the influential queens, desired her own son Bharat to be king. By her machinations, she managed to have Rama exiled for 14 years so that Bharat could then assume the throne. Bharat saw through his mother’s scheme, refused to sit on the throne and declared that he would hold the throne only as regent until Rama’s return. Rama then set out for the deep forests with his younger brother, Laxman and his wife, Sita where they managed to survive.

The demon king of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Ravana, heard of Rama’s exile, knew of his wife Sita’s great beauty and accomplishments, and became filled with desire to possess her. Whenever Rama was away from home, he drew a safety cordon around his hut, which no one could enter and if Sita kept within it, no harm could befall her.

Ravan visited the hut and, by clever deceit, managed to have Sita step over the cordon, seized her and took her off to Sri Lanka. Rama eventually found out what had happened, and he and his brother Laxman set out for Ravan’s kingdom of Sri Lanka to rescue her. Hanuman befriended him and assisted him with an army and built a bridge to Sri Lanka. They then invaded Ravan’s kingdom, defeated and killed him, rescued Sita, and placed his brother Vibhushan, a very able and compassionate man on the throne.

News of Lord Rama’s victory spread, and the population knew he and his entourage, including Hanuman, would be on their way to Ayodhya. All along the streets and lanes as well as the houses of the city were lit with thousands of small lamps to welcome Rama and the tradition of Diwali illuminations dates from this time. The life of Lord Rama and the moral teachings it enshrined and its interesting story captured the imagination of writers in the main languages of India and they wrote Ramayanas. In Guyana, the one used is the one written by Tulsi Das in the dialect spoken in Uttar Pradesh/Bihar, an area from which the ancestors of most Indo-Guyanese originated.

Today, the moral lessons of Diwali, derived from whatever tradition or source, are stressed in the temples and in homes: darkness must always give way to light; truth, integrity, honesty must always be upheld; women must be respected; Lord Rama’s governance of Ayodhya should provide a model for all governments and rulers; the traditions of dignified rejoicing and feasting must be maintained; and the poor and less privileged must be remembered.

In Guyana, citizens of every race and religion participate in the Diwali celebrations and, in particular, line the streets to enjoy the colourful Diwali parade the night before the holiday.