We wish everyone a Happy Diwali

One of our permanent national fixtures is Diwali (aka Deepawali) or the Festival of Lights. Hindus and non-Hindus celebrate this festival. It symbolises the victory of good over evil.

Today the Lakshmi pooja, a prayer ritual, one of the important rituals during the festival is performed.

It is performed to invite Goddess Lakshmi at home. Prayers are offered to the Goddess, so that the New Year (Hindu New Year) is filled with peace, wealth and prosperity.

Hindus describe today as a day of love, joy, happiness. One regular writer in our letters to the editor column, Dewan Chand, appropriately calls it a time to share and care in our multi-racial, multi-cultural and multireligious society in Fiji.

The fact that it falls on the Sabbath, the day of rest and worship of Christians, should not be an issue. Some Christians do not recognise Sunday as their Sabbath. Their Sabbath is on Saturday, and we don’t hear them complaining about the noise that comes with Saturday, the main shopping and sports day of the week for many people.

They know that we live in a country where freedom of religion is guaranteed.

They are practising religious tolerance. When faith groups celebrate a festival, it’s for a good purpose. Next month we celebrate Christmas, an important event in the Christian calendar. Everyone joins in. During this Diwali you can feel the joy and love in the air, the explosion of colour as people wear designs fitting the occasion, the smiles and sharing of food and sweets and the spruce cleaning of homes.

They represent the discarding of evil and bad things and welcoming of everything good into the home for the new year.

We all need a reality check at certain points in our life to see how we are going and whether we are heading in the right direction. Christians usually do that during the Christmas festive period, Muslims have also celebrated theirs.

We are fortunate that the Government understands the importance of these religious events, and has set aside holidays to celebrate them.

They provide people with spiritual strength as an agent for positive changes in their lives.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says, through our embrace of religious freedom, the many faiths of our people have become a source of harmony among Fijians.

We add our best wishes to his. We wish everyone a Happy Diwali.