What is Dhanteras?
Dhanteras is the festival which is celebrated in the month of kartik and 2 days before Diwali. This day is considered the auspicious day for purchase of silver and gold utensils. On this day Lakshmi Puja is conducted in the evening and people also lit up clays diyas outside of their houses.
History and Celebration of Dhanteras
History of Dhanteras
The legend related to this festival is that the son of king who is 16 years old is doom to die because of snake bite on the fourth day after his marriage. Seeing his wife has not allowed him to sleep whole night then she took out the gold ornaments and silver coins and put it in front of her husband. She has also lit up many lamps over the place. For the whole night she has been continuously telling him the stories along with singing the songs. When Yamraj comes he was surprised by the lights which were surrounded over him and he could not enter the prince room, so he climbed on the ornaments and listen to the prince wife singing all over the night. He went away in the morning quietly, so her wife has succeeded in saving the life of her husband.
Celebration of Dhanteras
On this great day of Dhanteras, all the houses and business premises are decorated with many lights. Rangoli is also put at the entrance point in order to welcome wealth and prosperity. For the long awaited arrival, footprints are drawn with the help of the powder over the houses. Lights along with lamps are continuously burning over the nights.
People consider the auspicious day for purchasing gold and silver items; they believed that purchasing metal is a sigh of good luck. In the evening laxmi puja is performed in the evening and clays diyas are lit in order to drive away the evil spirits. People used to sing devotional songs along with bhajans to praise Goddess Laxmi. Many types of sweets are offered to the Goddess laxmi. In villages farmers used to worship cattle as they are the main source of income for them.