Saturday, October 17, 2009

Luci a Delhi: Diwali

Europeans have Christmas. Americans Thanksgiving Day. Indians celebrate Diwali.

Diwali is the most celebrated Hindu event in India. It celebrates the return of Rama
, the legendary King of Ayodhya (in Utter Pradesh), to his home town after a 14 year exile and after he killed Ravana, a powerful king who ruled in Ancient Lanka (the present Sri Lanka). But from a more spiritual point of view, Diwali is the celebration of the “awareness of the inner light”, a central concept in Hindu philosophy that can somehow be compared to our western concept of “soul”.

Diwali is an extremely colourful and joyful event. People dress their best clothes, decorates their homes and shops with orange flowers, purchases sweets and gifts, and reunite with their families in the late afternoon to pray and exchange presents. And at night houses and shops are lightened with twinkling fairy lights and flickering candles (beautiful!), and people shoot fireworks and firecrackers (i nostri raudi)...

Today it was Diwali. I spent my Diwali wandering about markets in Delhi to breathe and enjoy the atmosphere of the eve of the feast. It was a very nice feeling: you could easily detect the excitement in the air: everybody was busy with the last minute preparations and decorations, everybody wished ‘happy Diwali’ to each other, everyone seemed genuinely happy...

In the evening I joined a group of colleagues (an interesting mix of Finnish, Germans, British, Indians, Sudanese, and Maldivians) who had a nice terrace on the top floor of a building - and from there we watched the fireworks and firecrackers. I don’t know how to best describe the sensation, but do imagine a 16 million city shooting uninterruptedly for five hours (from about 8 pm to about 1 am) fireworks and firecrackers... Well, let’s say that if I didn’t know we were celebrating, I could have easily thought we were under bombing...

1 comment: