No fireworks, no festivities: Centuries-old sati curse keeps Himachal’s Sammoo village from celebrating Diwali

A sati’s curse means the Sammoo village of Hamirpur district will not celebrate Diwali even this year — a tradition it has followed for many centuries.

The deliberate darkening on the day of the festival of lights has been followed by the locals ever since a woman burned herself on her husband’s pyre and cursed the day, Veena Devi, a deputy to the village head, said on Saturday.

The villagers in Sammoo, about 25 km from the district headquarters, at the most are allowed to light diyas, but there is a tacit understanding against the bursting of crackers and indulging in extravagance. Any deviation from the norm forebodes disaster, locals say.

According to the villagers, a few hundred years ago, a pregnant woman was preparing for Diwali when the body of her husband, a soldier in the local king’s army, was brought home. Disraught, the woman threw herself into the man’s cremation fire.

But before she departed, she pronounced a curse, saying the people of the village would never be able to celebrate Diwali.

Whenever they try to celebrate the occasion, either someone dies or some disaster strikes the village, said Thakur Bidhii Chand, an elderly villager.

Attempts have been made to undo the curse through ‘havan’ and other rituals, but in vain, he said. Three years ago, villagers performed a huge ‘yajna’, but the power of the curse still grips them, said another villager, Vijay Kumar.

Despite long years, the sway of the curse is such that many do not even leave their homes on the day.