There's no denying, we're fully in festival season. And tomorrow is the festival of festivals: Diwali. To give you a sense of how big this is in India, it's basically like Christmas, New Years, and Fourth of July... all rolled into one. The entire city of Delhi is adorned with lights, and endless store banners announce Diwali sales. Tonight, everyone will light diya candles at their house, and celebrate with fireworks (which are already starting to go off now, and it's only 6pm!)
Diwali is the "festival of lights" and begins with Dhanteras. Symbolically, Diwali represents the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness. When I went to the bank yesterday morning, all the workers chanted a hymn to start the day, and at sunset, Hindus are meant to take a bath and offer a diya lamp to Yama Raj, the Lord of Death, for protection.
Today is Choti Diwali, "Little Diwali". Choti Diwali represents the victory of Lord Krishna against the devil Narakasur. Driving around the city, it just feels festive (and meeting with clients today, the work environment is certainly bubbling with pre-holiday excitement). There's much more traffic than usual, and all markets are entirely packed with last-minute shoppers. Even beggars on the street ask for money "Diwali key pahs" (for Diwali).
What I didn't realize until today is that Diwali is actually a five day festival. Tomorrow is the biggest celebration, which includes family get-togethers and the worshipping of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.
A colleague joked that we wouldn't schedule meetings on Thursday, as it's "Boxing Day" here. More accurately, it's a day for worshipping Govardhan -- particularly in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Here's what I found in researching the holiday:
In this pooja, there is a tradition of building cow dung hillocks, which symbolize the Mount Govardhan, the mountain which was once lifted by Lord Krishna. After making such hillocks people decorate them with flowers and then worship them. They move in a circle all round the cow dung hillocks and offer prayers to Lord Govardhan.
There simply are no words...
Finally, Friday is Bhalya Duj, a day for brothers and sisters. Sisters place vermillion on her brothers' forehead and prays for a long life, while brothers give sisters presents and pray that she gets the best of things in life.
Interestingly, it's also festival season in the Philippines! As I learned on this trip, the Christmas season there starts in September and ends sometime around Chinese New Year (around February, depending on the lunar cycle). Everywhere I went, Christmas music was playing, and trees were already up.
Stores must love it. Traffic was particularly bad when I was there, and multiple people told me that it's because Filipinos get paid on the 1st and 15th of each month... there's a noticeable increase in traffic then, as people rush to the stores to spend their money -- especially in Christmastime!
Falalalala....lalalala.
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