Diwali, the festival of light, sweets, prosperity, love, respect, and firecrackers, is on the head. A festival demonstrating the victory of good over evil is approaching soon. We are all preparing to enjoy this biggest festival in India. Some of us might be occupied with shopping, decorating homes, and planning to enjoy this greatest festival.
But are we concerned a little about the environment and some threats to it? With the rise of pollution and global warming, the festival of light, Diwali, has started synonyms with crackers and air pollution. It’s time to rethink how we celebrate Diwali and adopt a sustainable option. Yes, I’m talking about Green Diwali; if you want to know about it, keep reading this article.
What is Green Diwali?
In simple terms, Green Diwali is a way of celebrating the festival of lights by ensuring minimum damage to nature, especially from firecrackers. The bursting of firecrackers increases air pollution and creates noise that harms the earth’s resources and its living beings (i.e., birds). Also, due to air pollution, people suffer from various diseases and visibility issues in the morning.
How can We Celebrate Green Diwali?
Now, you might be willing to understand how to celebrate a green Diwali, so let’s know.
#1. Decorate Your Home with Diyas
Instead of decorating your home with plastic diyas, LED lights, and fancy candles, you can decorate your home with earthen lamps or clay diyas that use oil to give light. Also, buying earthen lamps is much cheaper than LED and plastic lamps.
It will not save you money but also help in reducing electricity consumption. Moreover, you will help local diya sellers to earn their livelihood and help them celebrate their Diwali.
#2. Shift to Green Crackers
The Supreme Court has banned many firecrackers, which significantly impact nature and people’s health. Generally, these firecrackers emit Nitrous Oxide, which gets released into the air and spread across the area. However, it’s also true that Diwali is incomplete without firecrackers, especially for children.
Many certified firecracker manufacturers have introduced green crackers. These firecrackers are eco-friendly and do not release as many harmful gasses as traditional firecrackers generate. Also, the fumes from these firecrackers are less harmful to people.
#3. Gift Eco-Friendly Items
This Diwali, you might be willing to give some electronic items like a laptop, mobile, smartwatches, and jewelry to your loved ones. But before purchasing such expensive gifts, you must also consider whether they really need such gifts from your side.
With this point, I’m just suggesting that if your loved one already has such electronic items with them, you can consider gifting eco-friendly items. You can gift plants, handmade products, and khadi products, so there is minimum wastage of money and a small step in environmental protection.
#4. Enjoy Homemade Sweets
It can be hard to prevent, but it’s worth doing if you are serious about your health and fitness. Thousands of delicious, tempting, and varied sweets are available in the market. It’s hard to control yourself from buying such sweets. But do you know most of these sweets carry high sugar and artificial colors, which can harm your health?
So, to celebrate green Diwali this year, you can consider making sweets at home with loved ones. It’s a great activity that will bring you all together and let you share wonderful memories. Also, enjoying homemade sweets can take your Diwali experience to the next level.
#5. Use Natural Colors for Rangoli
Beautiful rangoli designs are an integral part of the Diwali celebration. It not only adds festive vibes but also shows the importance of colors in our life and festivities. However, if we talk practically, most rangoli colors are made from structured polymers, including glass powder, mica, and alkalis. These substances are non-biodegradable and also harmful to health when inhaled.
So, if you want to celebrate green Diwali without missing out on rangolis, it’s good to buy organic or natural colors. These colors are mainly made from rice powder, flowers, cloves, turmeric, and other eco-friendly substances. Because these substances are natural, they are biodegradable and not harmful to your health.
#6. Donate Old Things & Used Items
On this wonderful occasion, you might also be busy cleaning your wardrobes to discard old and unused items. This can increase the amount of waste and also harm the environment. So, donating such old items to poor and needy people is great.
Along with this, you can gift eco-friendly firecrackers and sweets. All these good deeds show a kind gesture and help you bring some light into needy people’s lives. Alternatively, you can sell these unused items to generate extra cash.
#7. Avoid Using Plastic Gift Wrappings
We all feel happy to offer a gift to our loved ones. Most commonly, we use gift wrappings that are made of plastic. These gift wrappings are non-degradable and also harm the environment.
Instead, you can use biodegradable bags, which are affordable or come at the same price. Such bags can have multiple use cases that ultimately make a small contribution to keeping the waste minimum.
#8. Use LED Lights to Save Electricity
This is where we all would be willing to work this Diwali. People decorate their homes with lights and electric lamps. We know lightning is important for the Diwali celebration. However, we also know that it causes a significant rise in our electricity consumption.
This Diwali, you can opt for Solar lights, which charge their battery using sunlight and have a long life. In addition, you can buy some LED lights, which will consume less power than traditional decoration lights.
Why is it Important to Celebrate Green Diwali?
Green Diwali encourages us to use eco-friendly options to celebrate this festival. We can use green firecrackers, which are safe for the environment and do not emit as much pollution as traditional firecrackers. It also helps us show our care toward nature and its ecosystem.
Are Green Firecrackers Really Green?
Green firecrackers use less harmful chemicals like potassium nitrate and aluminum than magnesium and barium. It also uses other substances which emit less harmful gasses than the traditional firecrackers.
Summary
Green Diwali celebration means using sustainable options to celebrate the festival of light without causing harm to nature. Using natural rangoli colors, biodegradable gift bags, green firecrackers, and decorating your home with Diyas are some green options that can help you celebrate green Diwali without missing a moment of happiness.
So, now I hope you have understood how to celebrate a green Diwali. I also hope you will use some of these options to make a small contribution from your side to keep the environment safe and sustainable.
Happy Green Diwali!
Also Read:
5 Must-Have Dishes in Durga Puja | Bengali Style Navratri Celebration
6 Easy Ways to Grow Facebook Page Followers
Top 3 Writing Practices for Writers
(Note: I published this article first on my LinkedIn account!)
