Significance of Fireworks on Deepawali.
Winter marks a period filled with festivals of lights and Deepavali ushers in this season of lights.
Deepavali is by far the most popular festival, celebrated all over India.
Deepa means lamp and Avali means a series, row, array. Deepavali as the name itself suggests, is the festival of lights – an array of lights, literally.
Karthika Mahatmyam, in that genre, is a work on the significance of the month of Karthika, around October-November in the Lunar calendar and November - December in the Solar Calendar. This is when the full moon aligns along with the Krittika or Pleiades group of stars in the sky.
Karthika Mahatmyam as well as Agama Sastra, scriptures that list the rituals to be performed by people, emphasize the act of doing Dana, charity in the name of ancestors, during the month of Karthika.
Some of the main forms of charity include
Lighting lamps by oneself, Deepa Dana
Supporting the lighting of lamps by others
Lighting lamps in terraces and in skies, Ulka Danam.
Through these narrations, one gets to learn of activities such as Deepa Utsav, Deepa Stambha, Deepa Vriksha, Akasha Deepam, Akasha Jyoti, Akasha Utsav and many more.
Shastra texts such as Dharma Shastra also list an act called Ulka Darshanam / Ulka Pradarshanam performed.
Ulka is a Samskrt word which is defined as “a torch” but more importantly used as a “meteor”, “a fire which falls from the sky”, “a firebrand”. In Indian legends, Ulkamukha was the name of a preta, ghoul, who was fire mouthed. Buddhist legends speak of Ulkamukha too.
Ulka, meteors were catagorized into 5 types as,
1. Dhishnya - ignescent balls
2. Ulka - meteors
3. Ashani - thunder bolt
4. Vidhyut - lightning
5. Tara - shooting stars.
This could very well point to the origins of practising Ulka Danam during Karthika month and also the concept of Deepa Danam for ancestors as the highest form of charity and a meritorious act during this month of Karthika.
One can also see such a connect between Ulka, Deepa and fireworks through terms such as Deepa Vriksha. Deepa Vriksha literally means a “light tree”. It is used in texts of town planning to imply lamp posts. At the same time it is also used to denote a kind of fire works display.
The month preceding this Karthika month, is the time when a fortnight of rituals would have been observed as Mahalaya Paksha when religious observances are held, rituals are conducted and the Pitr,
spirits of the ancestors are sought, in order to pay homage and offer them with food and water.
Ulka Danam after this period, are the rituals to send these ancestral spirits back happily to their spiritual abodes in the skies.
Deepavali thus is not just a celebratory festival but also a religious festival of observance to ensure that the spirits of one’s ancestors are sent back to their realms. This finds resonance in festivals of the West such as Halloween and Obon of Japan in the East.
Ref : Utsav India - Deepavali
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@Bharathgyan
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