Should Diwali be made into a public holiday?
On Friday 14th April BBC Radio London had a discussion on the subject of Bank Holidays. One of the discussions that took place was whether Diwali should become a public holiday in Britain. The text of the discussion that took place can be found here. What are your views - would you like Diwali to be made into a public holiday in Britain?
June 21st, 2006 at 11:50 am
Yes defiantely DIwali should be celebrated as a holiday in UK. The Diwali means to bring light to your life and reflEcts basic human instinct. In additiona it is celebrated by Hindus, Jain nd Sikh community in Britain.
June 21st, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Yes def… i agree diwali should be celebrated as a public holiday in the UK.
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:39 pm
A nation of 60 million people has 500,000 Hindus and therefore you think Diwali should be a public holiday? In what world does that even begin to make any kind of sense?!
We have chosen to live in a Christian country and, in my personal opinion, the most cultural accepting country in today’s world. Let us not abuse that hospitality.
Besides, I quite enjoy distributing sweets and so on to my colleagues on Diwali *grin*
June 22nd, 2006 at 7:09 pm
A nation of 1 billion people (India) has 20 million Christians and yet it has holidays for Christmas and Good Friday, if it cancels them, then the whole world will be up in arms saying that Hindus are persecuting Christians, so why shouldn’t we have the same rights in the West?
For your info Diwali is also celebrated by Sikhs, so that’s close to a million or 2% of the population of UK, so why shouldn’t it be a holiday?, or is it that Hindus are expected to live upto different standards (by providing holidays for Christmas and Good Friday for their 2.3% Christian population in India).
June 22nd, 2006 at 9:50 pm
India is over 2% Christian whilst Britain is less than 1% Hindu. Even if Sikhs are included, the figure is still just shy of 2%. Sikhs do indeed celebrate Diwali also, but if Sikhs were to choose any festival to be made a public holiday, I feel it would almost certainly be either Vaisakhi or a gurpurab; since there are as many Sikhs in Britain as there are Hindus, it would be somewhat unreasonable to expect one to back down for the other, and so this still leaves no justification to making Diwali a public holiday. In addition, India is not a Hindu country, whereas Britain is a Christian country; the two can hardly be compared. Note I have at no point said that I approve of the situation in India, but how India runs its affairs was not the question here.
June 22nd, 2006 at 10:58 pm
“In addition, India is not a Hindu country, whereas Britain is a Christian country”
A Christian country in name, just like Nepal was a Hindu country in name only.
The question is not about how India runs its affairs but about the double standards being employed here, if the West expects countries like India to allow missionaries a free run and provide holidays for Christians then it should have no problem in doing the same for it’s minorities and we have every right to demand a holiday, if the gov’t refuses that is their decision but in a democratic society we have a right to voice our demands and it seems like for a majority of Hindus it makes perfect sense to ask for a holiday.
July 24th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
I think that Diwali should be made into a public holiday. Also alot of people will be taking days off at Diwali, so it does make sense to make it into a public holiday! Not only for this reason, but also because Hinduism is recognised everywhere just like Christianity. So if the birth of Christ and Easter are public holidays then why not Diwali? Also, in India if Eid, Christmas, Easter and Diwali are public holidays then i think that Diwali should also be made into a public holiday.
July 25th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
In Guyana –Deepavali and Holi are National Holidays. Muslims have Eid ul Fitr and Milad un Nabi. Of course there is Christmas,Boxing Day,Good Friday and Easter Monday which are all Christian Holidays.
In Trinidad, Deepavali is a holiday but not Holi.
February 9th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Further to the above discussion, I think we would all agree that any country - in this case, Britain - should certainly accommodate minority cultures that have chosen to settle here and contribute to the nation; the question above debated is, of course, where to draw the line - when do hospitality and accommodation become servility and self-sacrifice?
Along these lines, I wonder what the views are of those here on the well-publicised (though possibly misinterpreted?) views of the Archbishop of Canterbury regarding the possibility of accepting a limited role for Sharia law in Britain? Before responding, I would suggest people read the full transcript of what exactly the Archbishop said, which is available online at:
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1573
February 10th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Immigrants of various faiths who have chosen to make Gt. Britain their home, a Christain land whose indigenous people have welcomed and accomodated us with grace, ought not to such demands. After all, we made no such demands in Africa, did we? I dont think we would have dared in those days of dictatorial regimes.
If such a demand were made in any Islamic country, I think there may well be consequences against us as prescribed in Sharia.
It would be nice to have a day off yes, but then what? Diwali by and large is a night time celebration generally where people hit the streets, fire crackers, great food and drink, and merry making - one big celebratory party, but its freezing in the UK on Diwali night and it just is not the same indoors!
Granted that India has Christmas holidays but that is historical. Nonetheless, does there have to be a “tit for tat” in this instance? Surely not.
The Archbishop’s Sharia in British law speech was the biggest mis-judgement anyone is such a position could ever make.
We have chosen to live in the UK, and I feel we must abide by the law of the land we choose to live in, or otherwise leave if we dont like its laws.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:45 am
India made a mistake by having so many holidays for each and every communities; as a result people hardly work. You have pay bribes to make them work.
Britain should not make that mistake. Religion is a private matter, there should not any public holiday for that.
If Dewali would be a holiday, then Id-ul-Feter, Moharam, Ramadam would be holidays. Yon Kippur, Buddha’s Birthday should be holidays. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on 7th January, thet would be another holiday.
Among the Hindus, only the Gujaratis and Punjabis celebrate Dewali, South Indians celebrate Pongal, Bengalis celebrate Durga Puja, Biharis celebrate Chat Puja, Marathis celebrate Ganesh Puja: thus there should be holidays for all these.
In that case just like in India next time if you want your birth certificate you have to pay 200 pounds bribe or wait until you drop dead.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
“Among the Hindus, only the Gujaratis and Punjabis celebrate Dewali, South Indians celebrate Pongal, Bengalis celebrate Durga Puja, Biharis celebrate Chat Puja, Marathis celebrate Ganesh Puja: thus there should be holidays for all these.”
You ignorant lout, Deepavali is also celebrated in the South.
http://www.diwalifestival.org/diwali-in-south-india.html
“Only Gujaratis and Punjabis” and you want to lecture Hindus about their lack of knowledge.
Ganesh Puja is also done in AP, TN, Karnataka but is biggest in Maharashtra.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Kadimipulli: you derive your knowledge about India reading wikipedia but I live there.
It is impossible to believe that Dewali would be celebrated by the followers of Karunanidhi or Baalu who cannot eat their Idli-Sambar without insulting Rama.
Celebrating a festival is not the same as having it as the most important celebration. Dewali is celebrated in many parts of India but certainly it is not so important as it is among the Gujaratis. Thus, Dewali cannot be the only holiday for all Hindus living in the UK, because all Hindus are not Gujaratis.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
On the topic of Britain and public holidays, I would encourage people to sign the petition to introduce a new public holiday to be held the day after Remembrance Sunday. The Remembrance Day holiday would mark a day when Britain can remember all those who have given, and continue to give, their lives in the protection of the nation. The petition is available online at:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/remembermonday
March 7th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
A.Moron you retard, you can’t even differentiate between a politicians personal rants and common peoples opinions and think that South means only TN (since Karunanidhi and Balu are only confined to TN) where as there are 3 other states generally classified as part of the south, so it seems you are the clown that gets your info off wikipedia.
Don’t be making assumptions you joker, you married some white xtian and think you are authority on all things Indian, i lived the first 14 years of my life in Hyderabad and can speak, read and write perfect Telugu (both Coastal Andhra and Telangana dialects) and used to spend the summer in the village and you want to lecture me, take a broomstick and shove it up your backside because i was a personal witness and know what is and what ain’t celebrated in AP, Diwali is one of the biggest festivals in AP only rivalled by Pongali (or Samkranti).
March 7th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Also you do realise a moron (what a perfect name u chose) that when you say south it includes both parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra according to traditional classification.
It was only when the Brits came and told servile losers like you that you were some big bad super oryon or drovidion that Marathas suddenly began to be referred to as Western Indians or in other cases North Indians!!!
Traditionally Maharashtra came under Dakshinapatha and Marathas were called as such, for example a Rajput chronicler inimical to Chhatrasal Bundela says that the reason Shivaji sent him back to Bundelkhand to fight there was because him being a southerner he didn’t trust northerners (all lies ofcourse).
Also traditionally Brahmins were subdivided into Pancha Dravida’s and Pancha Gauda’s, Pancha Dravida included TN, Kerala, AP, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmin_communities