Happy Diwali

This week was Diwali!  The most important day was Wednesday.  Diwali is the most significant holiday for the Hindu religion.  It is also referred to as the "Festival of Lights."  Since this is a festival celebrated within the home, it is hard to get a feeling for what all is involved.  However, there is an Indian family in our hotel that we have known since our last visit.  They invited us over for sweets after their family's prayer ceremony.  The prayer ceremony is called a Pooja.

Upon arrival, we were given a bindi (red paint mark on forehead).  They took us over to the area where they had prayed prior to our arrival and explained a few things.

The main god that they pray to on Diwali is Lakshmi - the goddess of wealth & prosperity.  On the tray, you can see a gold coin, a silver coin, and some money.  They give a prayer of thanks for what they have and pray for continued wealth & financial comfort in the upcoming year.  They also pray to some other gods, including Ganesha - the elephant god that takes care of the people, helps to overcome obstacles, and have new beginnings.  Ganesha is probably the most famous god in this region...I've made blog posts about him previously.  They set out food to pray to...they basically told us that pray to everything.  They also light small clay lamps filled with oil to signify triumph over evil...and they set off fire crackers to chase away evil.  This fireworks go on all week...and all night.  Most are just noisemakers - and the Indians try to convince the foreigners that there are far fewer fireworks than in the past - hard to believe.  All week, all day, all night!



Benjamin & one of his freinds in the hotel lobby.







Colorful flowers and flower petals are used to decorate...beautiful!  Flowers are a large part of the religion and can be purchased streetside every day.  We didn't venture to far yesterday, but apparently the piles of flowers in the city were huge!

They had a small pile of flowers and said that we could offer/give a flower to the god.  Benjamin enjoyed doing that.

In India, many businesses, start a new fiscal year on this day.  Prayer ceremonies are also held within companies.  We spoke with someone at the hotel and they told us that they had a pooja in the finance department over the cash earlier that day.  Rene has participated in many pooja's at his company.

These footsteps are placed in the door way to show the god to come in. 

My first bindi!

The Swastika symbol that is in the center of the footprints is one that makes most westerners associate with the Naziz. Although it is the same symbol it does have one defining difference.  The Nazi symbol was portrayed balancing on one corner, while the Hindu version is always shown resting flat on one side.  The word can be broken into 3 parts (Su+Asti+Ka), where Su means good, Asti means "it really is" and Ka makes it a noun.  It means "Everything is good.."  The Swastika is considered sacred and represents luck & prosperity.

We celebrated this evening with an Indian family & a family from Israel.

Happy Diwali!