Diwali

The Indian festival of lights, food, and fireworks. Diwali is celebrated pretty much across all religions in India, each having their own little legend to go with the day. According to the most popular legend, Rama, the God-hero in the epic Ramayana, came back home after 14 years of being expelled into the woods. City folks celebrated by lighting lamps, and Diwali has now come to signify the victory of good above evil.

My own Diwali memories include going home from college in trains with standing-room-only, making huge elaborate rangolis and stuffing my face with mom's gulabjamuns. This year, Diwali was a little different. :)


Lights
Lights
5 comments

We lit tea lights instead of diyas, tiny clay lamps filled with mustard oil and a rolled cotton wick. Father-in-law strung lights outside while Jack kept guard.


Jack got his own light
Jack got his own light
1 comment

And finally, there was the rangoli. A rather rudimentary Ganesha was all I could do.


Ganesha
Ganesha
6 comments

Happy Diwali, folks!




Tags:
This also appears in:

Next Posts

Previous Posts

Comments

Emjay

Thank you for an insight into an interesting tradition. Your photo of the tea lights is gorgeous.

Zotta
[this is good]
Thank you, yes, for such beautiful sharing of your Diwali traditions, present
and past. I think your Ganesha is fantastic! It reminds me of the Om
symbol in Sanskrit, I believe. A very happy holiday to you, too.
What are/were the exact dates of Diwali this year?
Jeni Treehugger
So brilliant that tonight we are having Indian food!
I will light a few candles as well.
:)
LeendaDLL
Happy Dawali to you too! I was thinking of you as I read about it on Yahoo last night.
Empress Nasi Goreng
[this is good]
Interesting. I love the rangoli. I was in Dehli over Diwali once. We didn't know anyone there so didn't get involved in any celebrations. I do remember the fireworks though. Happy Diwali to you and all the other Indians on vox.
Oink (who appreciates fine thighs)
That's lovely - and gorgeous pictures to illustrate.. they really set the mood.
Singing Horse
Happy Diwali! Beautiful photos you're sharing here. It's much better than Halloween.
Purplesque
:) Thank you. I really missed having the clay diyas, but tea lights look so pretty, don't they?
Purplesque
I see what you mean..I have made an Om rangoli in the past. :)

Diwali was 27-28th, we celebrated on the 28th, but a lot of folks in India celebrated on the 27th.
Purplesque
:) I hope you enjoyed your candle-lit Indian dinner.
Purplesque
What were you reading? I remember being fascinated by Christmas movies and stories as a kid. Even though Christmas wasn't really celebrated in our city, the festive spirit I could sense always made me wonder..
Purplesque
Oh dear. Diwali fireworks in India are not all fun and games. I remember being scared to step out of the house, afraid of fireworks going off too close for comfort. (They still did, on a regular basis.) :D
Purplesque
Thank you. As you can tell from the pics, Diwali and Halloween sort of merged together in our house. Right now I'm sitting with a bag of candy while watching the Daily Show.
Empress Nasi Goreng
Used to be like that here when I was a kid. Remember my brothers attachign them to their bike handlebars and riding around letting them off! They are actaully banned in most states here now though (although still seem to be freely available amongst a certain segment of the community in my neighbourhood).
LeendaDLL
ah, vox... lost my comment!!

i saw a link on a yahoo main page and followed it to a really good detail page that had info and links to lots of other stuff.

i'm intrigued by celebrations in general but especially those involving religious ceremonies, especially eastern religions (cause I have little experience with them). santa ain't got nuthin on a festival that involves lights, oils, colors, art, an elephant god and food!! (at least not when you're single and have no family)
Purplesque
I suspect you will love Holi. It used to be my favorite festival, full of color and naughtiness. My only regret was never being able to drink real bhang, a cool drink made of almonds and sugar and cannabis, the Indian version of pot cookies.
Singing Horse
Vox has been having a lot of hiccups. It took me a good 5 minutes to finally be able to get to the comment section.
LeendaDLL
I'm on board! When do I celebrate?
mariser
I'm late, but I hope you had a joyous Diwali.
Purplesque
Anytime in March, when its not too cold to douse self/others with cold colored water. :)
Purplesque
Thank you so much. I did. :)
LeendaDLL
Oh, I've seen pics of everyone all covered in colors - always wanted to join that party!!

btw: aren't you the person who said I should go black (hair)? I bought a bottle of darkest brown & a bottle of black. I'm going to mix them together and get what I get. If it's dark enough (prob won't be), I'll also do some insane cello color over it - like blue. I've never had totally dark hair. Might not this time either, thanks to the bleached blonde base. This will be interesting!!
Purplesque
I hope the color turns out well. If its more of a dark brown than black, though, I'd wait on the cello color..blue looks great on black, not so much on brown. You will post pics, won't you? :) If you get the darkest brown, a dark red cello might be fun, too.
blogginginthewind
[this is good]
Thank you for sharing this -- what a lovely time -- you made me feel like I was there!

Purplesque
Thank you for your lovely comments, R. Diwali is one of my favorite holidays..
LeendaDLL
Exactly what I was thinking (blue on black; red on brown)!!

I didn't do the color yet. Planned to do so on Sun but ended up so totally buttlaggin that I didn't do anything. So now it will be a random thing in the middle of the week (maybe Thurs - I'm taking the day off) or next weekend.

Post a comment

Already a Vox member? Sign in

You will be asked to join Vox to post this comment.