When Customs Collide
Traditions. They are embedded in every culture. And culture is part of diversity, something that gets lost in all the current noise about DEI and wokeness.
We’re entering that time of the year when many diverse celebrations will occur—celebrations embedded in different cultures. So, before the month ends, let’s celebrate October—Global Diversity Awareness Month—by looking at two celebrations that take place: Halloween and Diwali.
Diwali is an Indian religious festival that honors the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists celebrate by decorating their homes with diyas, or small clay pots used for Diwali lights; eating sweets; and wearing their finest Desi (South Asian) clothes. While Halloween is a fixed date, Diwali is determined by the new moon, so it shifts a little every year.
Not unlike Halloween, where customs and celebrations have shifted and morphed over time from Europe to America, Diwali is celebrated differently across India. Also, the origin story of Diwali varies across religions and ethnicities, and it delineates when and how the holiday is celebrated.
Some may think that Halloween is dark and scary in contrast to Diwali, which is bright and festive. Halloween is rooted in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain with bonfires and costumes to ward off ghosts (evil), marking the end of summer and the harvest (light and life) and the beginning of the cold winter (darkness and death). However, you can’t appreciate and celebrate light if you haven’t experienced darkness.
Are there other similarities? Diyas, used for Diwali lights compare to jack-o-lanterns or carved pumpkins, which often include a candle burning inside. Jack-o-lanterns grew from the Celtic tradition of carving faces into turnips or other root vegetables to create lanterns used to ward off evil spirits.
Multiple Puranas (Sanskrit sacred writings) suggest that the diyas are lit in worship of Yama, god of the dead. As Christianity supplanted Celtic rites, the church, in the year 1000, made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead.
Eating sweets during Diwali? Trick-or-treat anyone? Wearing finest Desi clothes? During celebrations that included bonfires, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins. Christians held All Souls Day parades, dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils.
Similarities. When we start dissecting the origins of holidays and celebrations from diverse cultures around the globe, an interesting thing happens. We discover more similarities than differences, even celebrations rooted in religious beliefs. When cultures collide, we discover that our customs, traditions and beliefs are not that different. We begin to see that diversity does not divide us. Rather it brings us together. Differing customs complement each other and can be blended, as many individuals from diverse backgrounds are discovering and doing.
In these volatile times, there is a call to “put our differences aside.” Here’s a challenge that puts a twist on that call: Let’s celebrate diversity by discovering what we have in common.