Preparing for Diwali

Last weekend was Diwali, popularly known as the "Festival of Lights" in America. The word "Diwali" literally means "a row of lanterns." Everyone buys at least a few lanterns to hang outside, along with garlands, festoons and, typically, Christmas lights. The Christmas lights do make sense in terms of the general concept of creating a row of lights for Diwali. As a foreigner from the northern United States, though, I can't help but find it a bit funny to see Christmas lights hanging on Indian buildings in eighty-degree weather. Their removal from the usual context makes the effect a bit surreal.

For about two weeks before the holiday, the street was lined with the booths shown above. These booths sell puja goods (such as incense, flowers, and colored powders), a variety of fireworks, decorations, clay votive-candle holders, and intricate paper lanterns. These lanterns are often being made constructed before your eyes by the people who sit outside and tend the booths. They also sell a variety of colored sands and seives that are used to make intricate sand drawings on the ground as Diwali draws closer. It was very neat to see all of this, but you can't hang around gawking for too long, because it gets very crowded, and people here aren't shy about pushing each other a little.

Like Christmas, Diwali is the biggest gift-giving holiday of the year. It is the time at which women traditionally order a new wardrobe for the upcoming year. Traditionally, the holiday celebrates the return of Ram, the hero of the epic the Ramayana, to his kingdom, Ayodhya, after rescuing his abducted wife. (Like most epics, this isn't a story that lends itself well to summary, so I won't attempt that here.) Diwali also is the New Year, according to the traditional Indian fiscal calender.

Like Christmas, this is also the holiday for which people who are living away from their parents or immediate families will most likely come home. Something I found funny was how similar the Coca-Cola Diwali ads resemble the Coca-Cola Christmas ads. Here is a link to one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecGXsn3ejR8

Also, in terms of how people deck out their delivery trucks in India, the truck in this commercial is perhaps not the most improbable thing I have seen.