Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/45

Rh done on the first Dipavali after the marriage, once by the bride’s family and a second time by that of the bridegroom, but the presentation of cloth or cloths continues as long as the relationship continues. In Northern India and among the Gujaratis of Madras, the Dipavali is the day of the closing of the annual accounts. From this day new accounts are opened in newly-bound account books, and this continues till the Dipavali of the next year, when fresh accounts are again opened.

The word Dipavali is a Sanskrit compound, made up of two simple words, Dipa, meaning lights, and avali, a row, thus a row of lights. The feast is purely an Aryan one. In Madras we do not notice any row of lights on the night of the Dipavali or on the preceding night in front of houses; to a small extent we observe this display on the Krittika day. But in Northern India, Bombay and Bengal the literal meaning of the word Dipavali is well carried out in the observance of this feast, and one’s eyes are almost dazzled by the rows of lights displayed in the fronts of houses in exceedingly fanciful arrangements. Thanks also to the invention