Dev Deepawali

The Dev Deepavali ("the Diwali of the Gods" or "Festival of Lights of the Gods") is the festival of Kartik Poornima celebrated in India. It falls on the full moon of the Hindu month of Kartika (November - December) and takes place fifteen days after Diwali. The steps of all the ghats on the riverfront of the Ganges River are lit with more than a million earthen lamps (diyas) in honour of Ganga, the Ganges, and its presiding goddess. Mythologically, the gods are believed to descend to Earth to bathe in the Ganges on this day. The tradition of lighting the lamps on the Dev Deepawali festival day was first started at the Panchganga Ghat in 1985. During Dev Deepawali, houses are decorated with oil lamps and coloured designs on their front doors. Firecrackers are burnt at night, processions of decorated deities are taken out into the streets of Varanasi, and oil lamps are set afloat on the river.[6] Owning to the significance and the growing socio-cultural popularity of this festival. The main rituals performed by devotees consist of kartik snan (taking a holy bath in the Ganges during Kartika) and deepdan (offering of oil lighted lamps) to Ganga in the evening. The Ganga aarti is also performed in the evening. The 5 day festivals starts on Prabodhini Ekadashi (11th lunar day of Kartika) and concludes on Kartik Poornima. Besides a religious role, the festival is also the occasion when the martyrs are remembered at the ghats by worshipping Ganga and lighting lamps watching the aarti. The festival is a major tourist attraction, and the sight of a million lamps (both floating and fixed) lighting the ghats and river in vivid colors have often been described by visitors and tourists as a breathtaking sight. On the night of the festival, thousands of devotees from the holy city and across the country gather in the evening on the ghats of the Ganges to watch the aarti. The local government makes several intensive security arrangements to ensure order during the festival.