For , the gift of a lamp was and still is believed to be the best ('donation'). During marriages, spinsters of the household stand behind the bride and groom, holding an oil lamp to ward off evil. The presence of an oil lamp is an important aspect of ritual worship (the ) offered to a deity. Moreover, a day is kept aside for the worship of the lamp in the busy festival calendar, on one (moonless) day in the month of Shravan. This reverence for the deep is based on the symbolism of the journey from darkness and ignorance to light and the knowledge of the ultimate reality – "".