How to Celebrate Eco-Friendly Diwali 2023
Diwali is perhaps the most widely & enthusiastically celebrated festival in India and by Indians across the world. However, this fervour for deepawali has led to over-commercialisation of the festival, result of which diyas made by artisans got replaced by imported glittering lights, celebrations with family & friends got replaced by burning deafening & polluting fire-works, sharing affection & sweets with loved one got replaced by fast-forwarding expensive gift-packs & adulterated foods. Its time to give up the thoughtless gifting, sugar-laden foods, poisoning of air for a green & organic diwali with your loved ones, celebrating Indian festivals the Indian way. Explore the space to find simple ideas, products & recipes for to celebrate Eco-Friendly Diwali 2023.
1. Switch to Eco-Friendly Crackers
India launched indigenously manufactured eco-friendly green crackers in 2019. These crackers use less harmful chemicals & produce about 30% less particulate matter pollution. The first change in Diwali 2023 has to be a switch to green crackers.
2. No to Plastic Lights, Yes to Diyas
Earthen diyas filled with sesame oil cause no damage to the environment and make your home and entrance look beautiful. The plastic led-lights though may feel cheaper, durable & glowing choice, they are no match for elegance & warmth of lighting a diya.
A crucial component of the overall Diwali celebration is home decoration. People use expensive lights and electricity-using lamps to beautify their homes. If you’re looking for eco-friendly ways to celebrate Diwali, you can modify your décor by choosing solar-powered lights that are sold in stores. If you use lights, make sure they are LED as it saves electricity or traditional clay diyas or earthen lamps are used, says complete NO to electric diyas.
3. Make Organic Rangoli
Diwali is incomplete without its share of colourful rangoli designs. Traditionally, the rangoli was made with edible items, however, modern rangoli colours changed the entire scene and introduced chemically made sand colours for rangoli. You can also make it with a variety of flowers such as roses, daisies, golden or yellow mariots, etc. This Diwali, it’s time to ditch the oil paint, toxic-artificial colors and to go for organic colours, flowers & clay diyas to beautify your rangoli.
4. Upscale your Waste, Upgrade your Home
Cleaning homes & offices is also one of the essential activities associated with diwali. However, each year, we scrap out a lot of waste including clothes, broken items, newspapers, old bulbs etc. It’s time to put your creative side of brains to use, get down & find ways to convert at-least some of these items into your own decorative stuffs.
When cleaning up your home, be sure to declutter your closet and donate any clothing you no longer use or need to those in need. There’s no harm in helping someone. Bring a smile to their faces. You should declutter your whole house, not only your closet!
5. Gift from Heart, not from Stores
Gifts are synonymous with Diwali, but over-commercialisation has turned this beautiful activity into a overwhelming, thoughtless chore, resulting in free-exchange of sugar-coated sweets. This Diwali 2021, breakaway with trend with some new gifting ideas like gifting a plant, organic foods, online subscription for yoga classes etc.
Give Plants as Gifts: As we all know that plants are the best gift that one could gift each other and to mother earth. They make a significant presence that will last for many years and continue to flourish and bring beauty. Live plants never lose their value over time, unlike other presents that eventually go out of style or become obsolete.
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Prepare Sweets at Home: Although many appealing, delectable, and endless sweet options are available on the market, most of these sweets contain artificial colours and a high sugar level. Celebrate Eco-friendly Diwali this year by making homemade sweets. Thanks to this, you can keep track of your weight and avoid ingesting artificial colours. Use ingredients like milk, coconut, jaggery, and dry fruits to make your sweets healthy and delicious, you can also use soy milk or coconut milk in your recipes.
However, if you want to purchase sweets from a store, bring your own container and stay away from using plastic and other wrapping materials.
6. Say NO to Plastic Wraps
If you’re giving gifts to everyone on the occasion of Diwali, make sure that you’re not using plastic and non-biodegradable gift wrappers. Instead use newspapers or biodegradable papers. Otherwise, you can also use the technique called “Furoshiki” which is a Japanese term, it is a square-shaped, eco-friendly wrapping cloth that can be used for gift-wrapping.
7. Biodegradable or reusable dining
Diwali is a festival where people visit each other’s houses to greet and seek blessings. Everybody serves food, sweets, and drinks so that everyone can enjoy themselves. To celebrate eco-friendly Diwali, use clay, stainless steel, copper, or silver utensils which can be reused over and over again if you really need to use single-use utensils then use plates and bowls made from banana leaves or use banana leaves.
Let us all pledge to be responsible citizens and celebrate eco-friendly Diwali 2022!!!!
