Diwali 2023
An edit for the Diwali that Hindus everywhere felt differently — the one that came with Sri Ram's homecoming to Ayodhya.
The Edit
Diwali 2023 is an edit made to celebrate a Diwali that was special to Hindus all over the world, because of the developments around the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi temple — the temple inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The video commemorates the coming home of Sri Ram.
The Subject
Diwali 2023 fell on 12 November, and in Ayodhya it fell in the last year before
the temple opened.
The city had by then made its Deepotsav — the lighting of earthen lamps along
the ghats of the Saryu — into an event of national scale, and that year the
count passed two million diyas and took a Guinness world record. The pran
pratishtha at the Ram Mandir followed on 22 January 2024, so this was the final
Diwali of the long wait rather than the first of the new era, and the mood in
the footage from that November reflects it.
For a great many Hindus the two festivals had by then collapsed into one idea.
Diwali already commemorates Ram's return to Ayodhya after fourteen years of
exile; in 2023 the city was preparing for a homecoming in the literal sense as
well, and the older story and the current event were being read through each
other everywhere.
Where It Landed
The piece went viral on social media.
