Deepavali, the festival of lights, is one of the biggest festivals of India. Preparation starts a few days in advance by getting the house ready, cleaning up all over, displaying decorations, making lots of sweets and savories. Family and friends visit and meet each other during the festival, everyone wears new clothes, festive foods are prepared, the house is adorned inside out with lots and lots of lamps/lights/diyas, and crackers and fireworks are burst during the day and night.

This year Diwali was over a weekend and I had family visiting. But it had been so hectic until the days leading to the festival that I had no time to prepare anything in advance. House wasn’t cleaned or decorated and I had only somehow managed to make a couple of sweets very late in the night.

But having family visiting was the motivation to kick start. We went to a friend’s place for a Diwali party on Friday evening after work and came back very very late. Next morning, I just didn’t feel like cooking anything as I needed to first clean up the place. So after taking the family to the park for a bit of fresh air and relaxation and eating an awesome lunch out, we came home and cleaned up and did some decorations and lights.

My little ones helped in making these glass gems rangoli..

And we also setup this Kandil, the first one I’ve ever made! I made the little hanging lanterns and this over the previous weekend.

And we also setup the new solar path lights and the laser projector lights outside.

Added a bit more decorations and a lot of lights! I usually go overboard with lights and place them all over the house and outside.

And then we all dressed up, did the pooja and enjoyed the Badam Burfi I’d made for prasad!

After a simple dinner, it was time for some simple mehndi while we hung out.

Sunday was a lazy morning, was too tired. But by afternoon, we had more family visiting and started preparing dinner as well. Lots more lights and diyas in the evening and some singing followed a scrumptious dinner!

We had a bunch of homemade sweets and (not home made) savories..

And dinner turned out great as well! My little one claimed that this is now his favorite Rice 🙂 And we had Cucumber Raita, hot Poori, Potato Sagu, Kadai Paneer that my husband made, Chole, Mango Srikhand and Mango Ras.

Couldn’t move after eating this meal! lol

To me Deepavali is about meeting and spending time with family and friends, cleaning up and decorating, brightening the space with lots of twinkling lights, wearing festive clothes, eating festive food, singing, mehndi, relaxing and doing things we like to do.

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