shedding light on clothing

last weekend was the holiday diwali, or deepavali as known in southern india. deepavali is the festival of lights celebrating the victory of good over evil, of knowledge over ignorance and light over darkness. in my family deepavali was very important: we got a new outfit every year. this was critical and my parents let us splurge a little so that we really selected something that we loved and that was useful and durable. i looked forward to this holiday very much. the night before deepavali we would put our clothes in our small home temple, rub the inside with a little vermillion and leave them with god overnight. in the morning we woke up, took showers and wore our clothes with pride and happiness. for my parents deepavali was the only time the entire year when they got new clothes. for the rest of the year they would just have to make do. when i was young i appreciated this holiday, especially because it holds my namesake, but i didn't quite get the meaning behind the clothes. now, i value the opportunity to buy 1 nice thing each year, and save and make do during the rest.