Diwali is the biggest holiday in India. It is really fun and is sort of like Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July all rolled into one. It is the time for exchanging gifts, getting bonuses, and celebrating like there is no tomorrow. This was our first Diwali in India and we had a hard time figuring some things out - like how much of a bonus we give our housekeeper, driver, the guards out front, whether to bring a gift when we went over to someone's house, where to buy fireworks, and a million other things. Thank heavens for good notes left by Marty and Donna, the folks that were here before us!
As to why folks here celebrate Diwali, read the Wikipedia link above. I asked many people and no one could give me a really good answer. Rather, everyone I asked gave me a different answer. I guess it depends on what part of India you are from as there are several mythologies that go along with the holiday. I just decided to not really worry about why it was celebrated, and just join in and enjoy the experience.
Leading up to the day, there is a general sense of excitement. Everyone seems excited and you can tell there are lots of preparations going on. Around the city, lights get strung and things start looking very festive. Some flats and houses around the neighborhood get strung with lights like at Christmas. Markets get busy and light up really pretty.
We were invited to a friend's home for Diwali. Lakshmi and his family are from southern India and they celebrate with a brunch, which they were kind enough to invite us to. At the brunch they served traditional southern Indian food, modified a bit for us westerners. In south India, they tend to eat with their fingers. A banana leaf is the traditional 'plate'. In deference to us, we had a large platter type plate, and they gave us silverware. Of course, all of them ate with their fingers. :)
The food was good and varied between too spicy for me to eat and very mild. Since Lakshmi and his family are vegetarian, the whole bunch had only vegetarian dishes. In south India, the staple of the diet is rice, so that featured prominently in the meal, with plain rice, coconut rice (really, really good) and tamarind rice (a bit too spicy for me) all served at various times. There was a great potato dish and some flat bread as well along with more food than I can remember. All I can say is that I ate until I couldn't move, and then ate a bit more for good measure.
We then came home to prepare for our own Diwali party. The house was decorated, and looked very festive. (I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, but I sure can't find any!) We had lots of friends over, and the food selection was pure american. Like Thanksgiving, we again ate way too much, but it was absolutely wonderful.
After dinner, we headed up to the terrace and watched and listened to the fireworks. It was like nothing I have ever seen. There are absolutely no restrictions on the type of fireworks you can buy here in India. There is everything from the huge rockets that you see at Disneyland to things that sounded like they were dropped out of a military aircraft. If you were just listening, there probably isn't a lot of difference between a military invasion and what we saw from the roof. Just imagine, 14 million people in Delhi, with absolutely no restrictions on the type of fireworks that people can buy and you'll get a pretty good idea of what it was like. (There is an expat that rides with us on Saturday sometimes. He works for a concrete company. He said he showed up to one job site and there were a ring of workers standing around seeing how high they could blow a 5-10 kg (11-22 lb) block into the air.)
At one point, we could tell that a pretty good fire was burning a little ways away from our flat. A couple of us headed out to see if we could find what was burning. We never found what was burning, but saw lots of people throwing huge fireworks around the street. I think that next year, I'll just watch from the terrace!
The fireworks continued all night long and for several days after.
Here's a short video that I cut together to give you a sense for what Diwali was like. Click here to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment