By tonight all the bed linen will have been changed, the lawn mowed, the walls painted, the windows washed, the house spotlessly cleaned and tomorrow all doors of the home will be opened to welcome Goddess Lakshmi, consort of Lord Vishnu. She, who rose from the ocean of milk when it was churned, will come to bestow fortune, prosperity and wealth on the family.
The 'diyas' (little clay lamps) have been replaced by electric lights in most households but some aficionados still have this traditional lamp lit at the doorstep of their main entrance.
Divali is also associated to Lord Rama whose path was illuminated when walking back from Lanka to his kingdom of Ayodhya.
In Mauritius the festival is now national and priests refer to it in their sermons in church and mawlanas in mosques. Everybody joins in to participate in this universal of celebration of light scattering spiritual radiance far and near. Let us not forget that tomorrow will be a moonless night, one of the darkest of the year. By lighting the diya, mauritians will choose to place the light within them over darkness, they will choose to bless their country.
