Why should I celebrate Diwali in 2014?

There i can only suggest you that despite not celebrating diwali celebrate it with those who you think are deprived of happiness. this will bring happiness to them and immense of happiness to you too. thus a win win condition.

If you're going to have a negative attitude towards everything in life, then you're being miserable. You have stated the reasons for not celebrating so far , and as these aren't solved yet, you can still continue with your stand of not celebrating Deepavali. But, if you think , you're doing something great by not celebrating the festivals, then you're living in a fool's paradise. Because, by not celebrating yourself and advocating others not to celebrate Deepavali you're in fact ruining and doing a greater harm to the whole purpose of it. The reasons are below. Deepavali is that season where everyone of these who you talked about, the poor ones, are given bakshish generously. Watchmen, maids, postmen, even random street workers come knocking doors asking for festival bakshish, and none of them is sent empty handed, the festive mood makes everyone generous and in true sense this festival is the festival of Goddess of Lakshmi (symbolic of money) for the poor people. If no one is celebrating Deepavali, you're depriving them off these bakshish which could in a small way improve their life if not largely. At least in the name of festival, they get to live happily for a day in their life forgetting all their sorrows. By not letting anyone celebrate Deepavali you're reminding them of their sorrows all the time. There is also a concept of Deepavali bonus, all the labourers get their bonuses this season at their respective workplace. If they won't celebrate, they lose this as well. Like mentioned, the crackers industry employs 200 thousand people, by advocating not to celebrate, all of them are losing their means of life, you're adding upto more people to that list of poor and deprived. Not just crackers, the festival is also about Sweets, diyas, decorating lights, various types of foods, clothing, and what not, all those people making a living out of these things, would be stripped off their livelihood. Well I can go on listing benefits of celebrating Deepavali too. And yes, I am proud to be Indian, I am proud to be celebrating the festival of lights, for it signifies, the transition from darkness to light. How do I celebrate? I celebrate this festival inasmuch eco-friendly way as possible. We use sandstone-diyas, eco friendly candles, sustainable LED lights for decoration, I buy crackers worth Rs. 1000 and some sweets in my capacity, and divide it in 4 parts, one for the maid's son, 2 for the random kids, and one for my li'll brother, I am not a fan of burning crackers, I enjoy watching though. Well, if you still want to stick with the stand you mentioned, please do so, I would also suggest you to do these. Stop using personal vehicles, travel by public transport. Take one meal a day less, as you can survive on 2 meals as well. Add to this list those of which are mentioned by Sourabh in one of the answers below. But as I said, by not celebrating, you're not doing any good, if you want to do some real good to the people, celebrate with them. Inspire them to do something with their lives, teach them the legacy behind the celebration of this festival. P.S: For healthy discussion, remove anonymity and come out in public and defend your stand. And yeah, thanks for A2A, for, you spent some credits atleast to let me answer this.

Diwali is a festival of lights. You should indeed celebrate diwali in a peaceful manner. Don't burst crackers as they create noise pollution and also pollute the environment. You should spread happiness amongst the people you live. You should also share sweets with poeple around. Celebrate the festval with your family and friends. Visit orphanages or old aged homes to give sweets, clothes or other stuff. Experience the joy of the festival by enlightening children or the old who don't have a family. I hope this may help :) Thanks for reading.

All that is good in mankind is concentrated in the deeds of the god-king Ram, the ruler of Ayodhya. Lord Rama, the moral man with his moral way of life are the reasons for celebrating India's popular festival of Dussehra and Diwali. Diwali comes exactly 20 days after Dussehra on Amavas (new moon), during fortnight of kartik, some time in October or November. On the day of Dussehra, Ram, killed the great demon Ravan, who had abducted Ram's wife Sita to his kingdom of Lanka. Ram, along with his brother Lakshman and devoted follower Hanuman, and an army of monkeys fought a great battle to rescue his lovely wife Sita. The war against Ravan lasted for ten days. Sita had been returned to her husband Ram and they now make their way to Ayodhya in triumph and glory. Thus, it is on the Diwali day that Lord Ram, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the Treta Yug, returned to his capital Ayodhya after the exile of fourteen years. Consequently, to commemorate the return of Ram, Sita and Lakshman to Ayodhya, people celebrate Diwali with the bursting of crackers and by lighting up their houses with earthen diyas. This grand style of celebration have continued, year after year. To this day, the whole of Ramayana is enacted in dramas staged in huge pandals and maidans, in cities, towns and villages, on the occasion of Dussehra and Diwali. Read more: http://festivalimagewishes.blogspot.com/2015/10/importance-of-dussehra.html#ixzz3p0o6gxbu

promise me you won't  let ac air touch you & will always use public transport if not cycle to your destination. you would bath with at most 6 liters water every  weekend (that's enough to keep you scent free, every engineering student does  it) &  you have saved the world. now, add to it by not celebrating Diwali. In realty you are fooling yourself & pretending to be a world savior when everyday you are adding  your part of pollution. & if you could explain how not celebrating festivals gonna help those poor people. as many have already explained how festival economy is related to them, I applaud your wish to help those people.  but keeping ourselves from happiness until they get their share is a lame solution. or next time make a sad face when you get a good joke as someone somewhere  at that time  would be suffering. also read 

Your question itself is full of flaws, First of all Diwali is related to mythology and historical celebration so you can not get rid of the Hindu Culture if you really want to celebrate diwali. Most of the problems that you have mentioned in your question have arisen due to misuse of science and over consumption for the sake for momentarily pleasures. So diwali can serve as the good start to fight these evil practices and follow the footsteps of great persons in history (bet it rama, or krishna) and be like them. For example, One could do the below things to celebrate Diwali this year - 1. Teach Poeple ( भीड़) that Crackers have nothing to do with Diwali, Diwali is 1000's years old while crackers were associated with it in the last century only. Infact since crackers are harmful to all the species, so its अधर्मा to burst the crackers, rather one should use the same money for some good purpose (donate clothes, food to poor). One should keep in mind that Crackers are not part of celebration in mythological, traditional or scientific sense. if someone goes to any good religious place (temple, ashram) then he will come to know the real celebration of diwali. 2. Plant few Trees, in earlier time people used to plant 10 new trees on a single human birth 3. Pledge to restrict your non-biodegradable consumption. Indian is a land of agriculture and we con afford too many landfills with harmful chemicals. 4. The best way to fight inflation (which hits hard the poor) is to consume less there by increasing the supply.

For the same reason why u celebrate birthday every year