Deepavali is one of the main festivals in the Indian culture and celebrated with much gusto. While it’s an absolute treat to get together with family and visit the various ‘rumah terbuka’, some other aspects are even better! As a millennial myself, I can assure you what we look forward to all year can be a little bit unorthodox.

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#1 Shopping galore
During this time of the year, it’s customary to clean out the whole house and fill it with new things. For anyone in their twenties and below, this translates to shopping for NEW clothes and anything else we can think of even if we don’t need it. Parents tend to say yes a lot easier than they usually would too. Now, this means everything is game and the opportunity to get that whole new wardrobe, new soft toy and whatever we’ve been thinking about, has finally arrived.

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#2 Food and food
So, as you know we love to call ourselves foodies and go to great lengths to discover new trends in food to snap for the ‘gram’. When it comes to Deepavali though, we crave the traditional, mouth-watering and home-cooked Indian food that open houses serve. There is no limit to ‘biryani’, pickled fruits and ‘jalebi’ with the unsaid no dieting rule. There’s no better way to show a good time than to snap, eat and eat some more!

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#3 Boom Boom Pow
Deepavali eve is as festive as the day itself and celebrations are just as exciting. People spend the day preparing for family and friends coming over for a night of celebrating and the countdown. For us, we just want to play with firecrackers. It’s a little compulsive but we go out of our way to get Pop-Pop and Happy Boom which is a staple from everyone’s childhood. Our definition of Deepavali eve is just a night of being carefree and reliving our younger days. The countdown is fun but making that boom boom pow with our friends is what we’re waiting for.

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#4 It’s all about the MONEY!
Let's face it, we all enjoy receiving money regardless of our age but getting ang pao packets is a joy unlike no other. We have to seriously focus and contain ourselves not to peek immediately inside to see how much we got. However, once we can, we can’t help but compare with our siblings and cousins to see if they received more or not. It’s kinda like a running competition to see who can get the most money by the end of the festive season. After that, its night out with the cousins at the mamak!

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#5 OOTD
Okay, so this is the moment we put the most effort in. The outfit you wear to prayers on Deepavali morning or to visit friends and family is basically a best-dressed competition. We even spend more than a month looking for just the right OOTD to blow out on our social media accounts. It’s a big deal to us, I mean we need to find matching accessories, the perfect shoes and it’s not coming off till we get home to sleep!

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So, as you can see we millennials have a whole different version of Deepavali but even though all the things listed above are too good to resist, the cherry on top is still the same. Nothing can beat the feeling of everyone coming together regardless of race or religion and spending quality time with loved ones.

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To get more insight into celebrations in Malaysia watch Surely Malaysian’s episode on 5 types of ways Malaysians celebrate.