DIWALI - FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
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| Me with a phuljadi |
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| A colorful anaar |
My favourite festival of the year- Diwali , also known as the festival of lights arrived again this year on the 13th of November . The date of this festival keeps changing as it depends on the Hindu calendar. This year once again we lit up our house with beautiful lights on each window, decorated tables and made beautiful rangolis just outside the door to welcome all things good and holy.
I have been making the rangoli on Diwali for almost 7 years now and the designs I choose are always simple yet time consuming! This year it took me almost 4 hours to make the rangoli and I'm suffering right now with pain in my thighs ( making a rangoli requires non stop crouching and bending etc).
On this day , not only my house but the entire city lights up with beautiful decorations and glimmering lights. No one can NOT be happy on this day! I have a lot of pictures to show you pertaining to what I have written so far.
Also people dress in all their finery , complete with heavily embellished Indian clothing and gold and diamond jewellery. But since I burst fire crackers ( another tradition- after worshipping the gods we burst fire crackers at night ) , wearing all that would pose a significant fire hazard. Hence I chose non fussy clothing that involved a Zara top, Mango jeans and a simple gold and black necklace that i purchased at an exhibition.
Another tradition on Diwali is to play card games like Poker , teen patti etc! But these aren't for the faint hearted . The real games - the kind that my dad plays involve buy ins of a minimum of a $1000.
Bursting fire crackers on this day is a tradition like I said before but it isn't the safest thing! A type of firecracker is called an 'anaar'. Its a conical shaped cracker , no bigger than your palm but when lit it shoots out flames and sparks upto 2 storeys of a building! We light it with a thin , long ( stick type) fire cracker called the fuljadi and then run away from the anaar for safety! This year an anaar burst just after I had lit it and I barely had time to get to safety. Normally you do get 10-15 seconds before it starts shooting out , but when it bursts you don't get more than 3-4 seconds to run. Luckily nothing happened . I was scared momentarily but got over it !
Here are the pictures . :)
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| Our windows- beautifully lit up |
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| The outside of a mall |
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| View of a street from the car |
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| Rangoli and Diyas ( tiny decorative candles) |
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| The entrance to my house |
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| My entrance and our neighbour's |
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| The doorway |
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| Lots of flowers and candles |
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| Rose petals and a diya |
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| My little sister |
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| My rangoli |
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| Proud of my creation |
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| Lots of decorated windows |
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A firecracker
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A change of clothes before going over to a friend's house
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