Diwali

I recently visited a friend of mine in Mumbai during Diwali. Diwali is a Hindu festival that resembles European Christmas and New Year. It is the festival of lights and celebrates the victory of good over evil. People wish each other “Happy New Year”, exchange gifts and decorate their houses with candles and lights. The city is lit up and most balconies are decorated with strings of colourful light bulbs.

Several pujas (prayers) are made. A puja is made to the goddess Lakshmi: it is the goddess of wealth and praying for her will bring wealth for the coming year. This reminds me of the custom of eating lentils in Italy (lentils bring money) or eating 12 grapes corresponding to the 12 bell strokes at midnight in Spain and so on. I was also part of a ritual: my friend’s mother applied a paste of natural ingredients (I can only remember the poppy seeds as one of the ingredients) on my face and feet, then she applied oil and coconut milk on my hair and did a small puja. Then I took a shower and I had to break a small lime with my heel in the shower. This should give me protection and wealth for the next year!! I was part of another similar ritual but it was made by my friend’s grandmother. When finished, she kindly gifted me a small statue of the goddess Durga, the goddess of power that fights evil:

Another tradition of Diwali is the rangoli: a decoration made with colourful powders (a similar thing called atham is made in Kerala with flower petals, see the previous post Onam). My friend and me also made a rangoli: we took the pattern from a rangoli design book and then coloured it with several powders. It is more difficult than it seems (the powder never goes where you want it to), but the result is very satisfying:

Diwali, just like Christmas, is the time of the family’s get together. I was offered meals and gifts at several of my friend’s aunts and grandparents places and I had amazing home made food. We also fired some small fireworks and then watched the big ones from the terrace: from everywhere in the city fireworks were fired and the whole city shined in different colours, a great show! Happy Diwali!