The episode of the blog is going to cover two holidays. I will start
talking about the epitome of Indian holidays and then Rae will report on an
American holiday that we helped a little to bring to India this past week.
Happy Diwali (pronounced deevahlee), everyone. Our posts have covered
the topic of Indian festivals in general and the details of some in the past.
Today is the heart of the most important festival across India: Diwali. As with
most festivals in India, Diwali has roots firmly in Hindu religion and
tradition but it has morphed overtime so that even non-religious celebrate it.
In many ways it is analogous to Christmas. It clearly had religious origins, but now it has a life outside the religious meaning
as an opportunity for giving gifts, celebrating, and parties. Actually the parallels
extend to gifts. Just as with Christmas where presents have morphed from simple
gifts and fruit and candy to the expensive and expansive, the same pattern
exists with Diwali. Originally, dried fruits and nuts were the gifts that were
exchanged. These items still play a significant role but now their role is more
like candy canes at Christmas: an iconic image but if that is all that was
given or exchanged there would be rampant disappointment.
Diwali is actually a contraction of Deepavali which means festival of
lights. The celebrations cover five days but Diwali proper falls on the third
day of the five. As noted above, parties, gifts, and lighting candles are
important parts of the celebration. Traditionally the candles are made of small
clay dishes filled with ghee (clarified butter) with cotton wicks. Those are
still very common but now one also finds electric lights hung on buildings or
strung around rooms. Historically, Diwali was the beginning of the new year and
as such some of the religious ceremonies had to do with that. Particularly,
importunes to Ganesh, who as I have mentioned before is the God of new ventures
(in part) and Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity. These ceremonies, called
pujas, are religious ceremonies in which offerings such as fruits, flowers,
oil, water, essence, and other items are offered to a god or goddess. These
offerings are usually accompanied with chanted or sung prayers. Such pujas can
be done in temples, in businesses or in homes.
Relative to people inviting Lakshmi, a friend of mine told me a Hindi
urban legend. As Lakshmi is the Goddess of prosperity, it used to be common for
people to leave their doors open on Diwali to invite her into their homes and
lives. However, thieves knew that people would leave their doors open so they
started robbing all those who left their doors open, so they were the only ones
blessed by Lakshmi with wealth and prosperity. Now, people leave their windows
open. A crack.
Actually, in some ways the celebration of Diwali is a combination of
Christmas, Fourth of July, and Chanukah. The gifts, I have already mentioned. However,
Diwali as the firecrackers and explosions of Fourth of July, and the candles of
Chanukah. As I am writing this there were a series of explosions that were
either fireworks or someone was only given nuts and his disappointment yielded
riots in the streets not just disappointment.
Friday we had our Diwali celebrations at work. There were several parts
to the celebrations. First, everyone was supposed to wear traditional clothing
and there was a winner for the one who was voted best dressed. Here are a few
pictures of employees in the dress traditional to their part of India.
Next, different groups of employees participated in a rangoli contest,
in which pictures were created on the floor of the campus. Rangoli typically consists of bright colored, decorative designs
made in living rooms and courtyard floors during Hindu festivals. They are
meant to be sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities. The ancient symbols
have been passed down through the ages, from each generation to the next,
keeping both the art form and the tradition alive. The patterns are typically
created with materials including colored rice, dry flour, (colored) sand or
even flower petals. Again, winners were selected for the best designs. Below are
some pictures of the designs and their creation.
Unlike in the US where any hint of religious practice
has to be scrubbed from holiday celebrations, a central part of our Diwali
activities was a puja. All the employees who wanted to gathered in our auditorium
where cushions had been spread out. As they sat two Hindu priests led our CEO,
Charu Modi, through the sung prayers and offerings of the puja. Then towards
the end of the ceremony, anyone who wanted to was included in symbolically
making offerings to Ganesh and Lakshmi and receiving a cinnabar mark on their foreheads.
In respect for the ceremony, I did not take any pictures of it, but here are a
few of the set up and how the idols looked after the puja was completed.
After the puja Charu and I gave out presents
to each of the employees. Some of the employees, then sat around and sang
traditional songs and played games. We then had a joint lunch and most of the
employees left early to start their individual or family celebrations. A few of
us got to stay and keep the doors open and lights on.
I have been coming to India since 2002 and
have been here many times. Over the course of my trips I have heard about
Diwali (usually as in, well that’s Diwali so it would be better if you came a
week or two later). However, I have never actually been here during one. It has
been very interesting and I am glad we have been here to see and participate in
it. The other iconic festival is Holi, festival of color. I moved here just
after this year’s Holi. I am looking forward to participating in that festival
next year.
Here’s Rae. Be gentle; she’s been sick this
week.
While I was in the US, Phil said we had been
asked to put on a US Halloween party for the branch. I was able to grab a few items for our party
here. These items in the states wouldn’t
have been considered very fantastic, but for people here, they were
exciting. I have come to realize that it
doesn’t take much for people here to be impressed, grateful for your efforts,
or excited. I brought back some plastic
skeleton rings, ghost napkins, plastic spiders, bats, skeletons, a plastic
table cloth and some goodie bags with pumpkins on them.
As Phil mentioned, I have had some kind of
bug since I got back and so getting things prepared was an effort. I made brownies and candied popcorn for part
of the refreshments. I made 120 brownies
which was a bit of a task because all I have for baking is the toaster oven
which is a challenge in and of itself.
If I put the rack on the lower setting then the bottom burns and one
setting up burns the top, so the rack has to be moved half way thru the baking
cycle. I then made about 75 goodie bags
of candied popcorn. In any case, I got
it accomplished and actually felt pretty good on Thursday for the party.
Someone came up to me later to tell me how cute the bags were and that she was
going to keep it as a souvenir of a great party. The treats were a hit. There
wasn’t a crumb left of any of it.
Trying to figure out costumes here is a bit
of a challenge as Halloween isn’t done here.
I had brought back some devil horns, a tail and a red feather boa. I figured I’d go as a devil and Phil could be
an angel, (which is typical of our relationship)(Phil - playing against part
actually). Who knew that between not
feeling well and not being able to figure out which little store to go to for
wire would make constructing angel wings so tricky? I found 4 wire hangers and a white pillowcase
and somehow created some angel wings. I
won’t try to describe the constructions process for the halo. Like I said earlier, it doesn’t take much for
people here to become excited and I had several people who asked if they could
have the wings. I had to explain that
they were made from one of my pillowcases and so I needed them back.
Unlike the US, finding bags of candy is a
challenge, (forget big bags of mixed candy) and after checking several places
we were able to find some individually wrapped candy that I would describe as
equivalent to an individually wrapped life saver. We had asked families to bring candy that
they would pass out to the trick-or-treaters as they went from room to room in
our building. Any of the candy that I saw the families bring was also similar
to what we were able to find. As Phil
and I were talking afterward we were impressed with how excited the kids were
for these little pieces of candy and how upset kids in the US would have been
if that was what they were offered as treats.
We had a couple of activities for them to
do. One was a room where we strung
string across (string is also a bit hard to find) and then different lengths of
string hanging down from those with a piece of candy attached at the end. The kids were blindfolded and with only theirs
mouths tried to find a string and catch the candy at the end of it. They were so excited to get their piece of
candy. We also had a fishing booth and
the kids got a piece of candy and a skeleton ring, also something that really
excited them. I had a mother come to me
at church to see if I had any extra rings because her daughter had taken hers
off to wash her hands and left it at the church. She was broken hearted and cried because she
had lost her ring. Like I said, it doesn’t take much to thrill them.
Here are some things I am learning. Things that we can easily get in the states,
and take for granted, are not so easily gotten here. Also, people here have so much less than we do
and are so excited about things that we would turn our noses up at and be
insulted by. I’m realizing what a truly blessed
life I have lived.
We were so busy running the party that we
failed to take any pictures. If we can
get someone to share theirs, and there were a lot of pictures being taken, then
we will try to include them next week
For now,
Namaste.
No comments:
Post a Comment