Residents of this Mohali village celebrate Diwali a day later

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, October 20

While Diwali has already been celebrated with fervour across the country on Thursday, around 600 residents of Chilla village, which falls in Sector 81, here, enjoyed the festivities today.

Age-old tradition

“It’s an old-age tradition, which is being followed religiously by residents of the village till date. We celebrate the festival on the next day after Diwali,” said Ajaib Singh, former sarpanch of the village.

Telling the tale behind the custom, he said decades ago when all its residents used to tie their animals at one place in the village, they had found that all animals ran away to some place on Diwali.

“Then, instead of celebrating Diwali, all men of the village left their houses in search of the animals and returned only past midnight. Considering it not a good omen, the residents then decided to celebrate the festival on the next day. Since then, we have been celebrating it a day after the actual date of the festival,” said Ajaib.

Other residents of the village, including Gursewak Singh and Amarjit Singh, said as per the tradition, the men in the village usually leave their houses and visit their in-laws or some other relatives on Diwali and return the next day to celebrate the festival.

“We exchange sweets, burn crackers and perform other Diwali rituals only on the next day of the festival,” they said.