Come Diwali and there is celebration all around. The festival of lights also brings with it the opportunity to see the beautiful fireworks. At the same time, many of us are aware where these fire crackers come from. Our celebration comes at the cost of hundreds of thousands of child labours many of whom will die before celebrating their 18th birthday. Celebrations or Cause?
Let's discuss what we can do.
Why is bursting crackers a tradition?
As far as I know..
According to what I remember, the celebration of Diwali has the story of Narakasur being killed by his own mother (who was then Satyabhama, wife of Sri Krishna in her rebirth) behind it. Later it was her wish that the Diwali be celebrated by remembering him. Maybe as a way to show celebration and joy, we burst of crackers. I cannot tell about 100-200 years, but the bursting of crackers does have quite a long history.
On a personnel front, I've asked my family not to bring crackers for the past 2 years. But they say its tradition to light diyas and burst crackers. As a method to solve this, we have tried to work this out, make family and friends gather at a place and burst some crackers. This in a small way reduces the quantity of crackers burst and the pollution it causes.