Lights!
 

My name is light. Lights and candles that are burned to get rid of all of the darkness. It means color. It means joy. It’s like standing with only one candle in a room filled with darkness. It is like watching fireworks go off in the sky, lighting it up with blue, green, red, purple and orange. It’s like looking at your reflection at night with only the moonlight to brighten the pond’s surface. It’s like the feeling you get when you do well on a test or the happiness you experience when you make your first free-throw shot in a basketball game. It’s like watching a child ride a bicycle for the first time or a teenager receiving their first paycheck.

I was born near the date of the Indian festival Diwali. This festival is the festival of lights. On the dark nights in the season of Diwali, the sounds of firecrackers announce the celebration of the colorful festival. Uniting all members of the community, young and old, rich or poor, the lighting of the lamps represents the thanking of God for receiving health, wealth, knowledge, and peace. People give expressions of their happiness by lighting small lamps made of clay and decorating their houses to welcome wealth and prosperity into it. The lighting of the lamps is also a way for people to show thanks for the good things in their lives. The bases of the traditional lamps are made of clay, which represents the body. The oil represents energy and the wick is the intelligence or talent.

Bursting firecrackers and inviting the near and dear ones to their households for taking part in a luxurious feast is also a common gesture around this time. Homes are also decorated, everyone distributes sweets and thousands of lamps are lit to create a world of fantasy. In Indian customs, we are supposed to be named after a certain event or our names have to mean something special. My whole family has been named depending on when they were born.

I like my name because it is original and it stands for something. My name represents light. It represents color. It represents purity and victory over evil. It literally means lamp or candle. The lamps are symbolic of the victory of the light of goodness and knowledge over the darkness of evil and ignorance.