But the rains did not dampen the festival spirit that was here last week. Last Tuesday (November 1st) was Diwali (The Festival of Lights) for the Hindus and last Friday (November 4th) was Eid (the end of Ramzan, the month of fasting) for the Muslims, so every
one was experiencing the holdiay spirit. Liz and I celebrated Diwali, since we both had the day off of work. Diwali basically celebrates the triumph of good over evil from a story in (I believe) the Ramayana. It is, most probably, the biggest holiday in India (in some places the celebrations go on for 5 days!) and is compared to Christmas in the West. Most people try to be home to celebrate with their families. They traditionally mark the occasion by doing a pooja and putting on new clothes in the morning. Then, in the evening, lamps are lit along the outside of the home. Here is an explanation from an article my manager sent to us:Diwali literally means a row of lights, and the main attraction is the candles and lamps, called diyas, that are lit in almost every home after puja (a ceremony where the lamps are made). The lights are meant to welcome Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity, and to bring joy, mirth and happiness in the new year, which starts the day after Diwali.
Liz and I celebrated by going shopping a few days previous to purchase new clothes to wear (like we needed an reason to shop!) :) We then watched a Tamil movie (Thirmalia? Something like that...) to feel culturally connected. :) We also took a walk down the street to the local temple to see the activities going on there. We came back home and lit lamps along our balcony rail and outside our front door.
The other thing that is done to celebrate Diwali is the bursting of crackers everywhere. It was so loud here for quite a few days! The kids started with pop guns the weekend before. Both the morning before Diwali and the morning of, I was awakened at 6 AM by people setting them off. I managed to sleep in a little bit, intermittently, but, for some reason, my dreams were filled with war images!
Even though Diwali is compared to Christmas, I also think of it as the 4th of July... cause of all those fireworks :-) I'm just glad they try to keep it down between 10pm and 6am during the celebration days, cause I think people in our neighborhood especially liked the less colorful but quite noisy ones :-) It is one of my favorite times of year here... I just wish we got to take Friday off and celebrate Eid as well... that's a fun celebration, too (with lots of yummy non-veg food :-))
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