NEW DELHI: Diwali, a festival of lights, prosperity and happiness is one of the most celebrated festivals in India. There are lakhs of houses which lights diyas and candles all over their places and home to illuminate their houses in an attempt to drive out the darkness (bad deeds) from the world.
While different states celebrate Diwali, the sacred town of the Hindus, Ayodhya is known for celebrating Diwali in a unique manner and for which this town apart from bring lord Rama’s birthplace also consists of various reasons due to which it is regarded as the most pious land. Every year, Ayodhya celebrates Diwali with thousands of diyas lit over different ghats of river Ganga. While this year, Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya on Saturday witnessed grand Deepotsav celebrations and illuminated its ghats with lakhs of earthen lamps. On the eve of Diwali, the temple city, which is located on the bank of the Saryu River, broke its own world record. About 22.23 lakh diyas were lit at the same time across 51 ghats in Ayodhya to create a new Guinness World Record.
The town began Deepotsav celebrations with the formation of Yogi Adityanath-led government in 2017. In that year, about 51,000 diyas were lit and the number went up to 4.10 lakh in 2019. In 2020, over 6 lakh earthen lamps were lit and more than 9 lakhs in 2021.
In 2022, more than 17 lakh diyas were lit across the ghats of Ram ki Pairi. However, the Guinness Book of World Records only took those diyas into consideration which remained lit for five minutes or more and the record was set at 15,76,955.
