In faraway India, a special day celebrates the ‘Festival of Lights’. Today, President Barack Obama took part in the celebration, lighting the ceremonial lamp and wishing millions of Hindus on this happy day.
Deepavali (also called Diwali) is a five-day event that’s observed all across the world. It’s the launch of the new business year, and people pray to the goddess of wealth to bless them with rich rewards over the coming year.
Today, our family joined in celebrating Deepavali, with my friend Shankar Das who was visiting us over the holiday. We got special permission from the council to even light fireworks (well, they were only electric sparklers, but they were pretty – and fun!)
We gorgoed ourselves on delicious sweets that mom made for us after looking up the recipe on the Net. Adarsham was the best, an oily sweet pancake made of wheat and brown sugar. Yum!
Shankar took us all to a community gathering, where we watched the rituals of propitiating the stone deity with lamps, diyas and clanging of bells amidst chants of holy words and songs.
Sometime I should visit the original country of Deepavali and watch the festivities in full swing. I hear the fireworks are something amazing – and worth watching. In all, we had great fun celebrating the festival of lights.
Tags: deepvalai, diwali, festival of lights
