Diwali, part 1

Diwali will take several posts to cover, I'm sure, so we'll start with Sam and Evie's school party. Diwali (actually called Deepavali by most people in this part of India) is the festival of lights, the most important festival for most Hindus. It's similar to Christmas as far as hype, commercialism, and general excitement are concerned, but like most Hindu festivals there are several stories surrounding its origin.

The main story, as far as I can tell, is that Diwali celebrates Krishna's defeat of the demon Narakasura. Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu the preserver, one of the most important Hindu gods. (Another of his avatars is Rama.) Whatever denomination of Hinduism followed, though, the main idea behind Diwali is the triumph of good over evil. Families light lamps inside and decorate with lights outside their homes to symbolize the victories of light over dark, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance.

On Diwali (which is actually on the 26th this year), families wake up before dawn and take ritual baths. Then they dress in new clothes and spend the day exchanging gifts and sweets, visiting temples, eating traditional foods, and setting off fireworks. The fireworks have been going for several evenings already, and let me tell you it sounds like I'm living in a war zone.

Here are Evie and Samuel dressed in Diwali clothes for the school celebrations.

Ashok chastised me for giving Evie only enough bangles for one arm. Clearly we aren't showering her with enough bling.

Samuel's sash lasted mere minutes.

I didn't see Evie's class party, but Samuel and I had all kinds of fun in Mommy and Me. All the kids, moms and teachers were dressed to the nines.

We made several attempts at getting a group photo of the kids ... ha! Here's one of the better attempts.

The kids did their usual morning prayer, exercise, and playtime, but then they learned about lamps and firecrackers for Diwali and decorated their own diya, which is the traditional oil lamp used in the celebrations. For their snack the kids ate Diwali sweets, made with butter, honey and sugar. Samuel liked it, but I felt like I'd just swallowed a spoonful of nasty.

And then the real fun began. The school hired someone to spend all morning lighting fireworks in the front yard, and each class took a turn watching from behind the glass at the front of the school. I thought Samuel might be scared, but he was all over it.

The yard and steps were decorated with kolams (the white drawings), rangoli (the colored accents), and lots of little diyas.

Going for a better view

The woman holding the sparklers is Kavita, the owner of Alphabet Playschool. Her office is right next to our classroom, and she's always bouncing in to sing with us or blow bubbles or whatever. She's definitely a kid person.

There will be much more Diwali to come. John and Johnny are out with our friend Suyash as I speak, buying crackers and fireworks for the Diwali party at Suyash's house on Wednesday night. I am afraid, very afraid. Indians do everything with such gusto. An officer who left this summer told us that the only time he'd ever feared for his life in Chennai was on a walk down the street at Diwali. It's the Fourth of July with no regulations whatsoever! Woot!

Here's a parting shot of Samuel and his wonderful Mommy and Me teachers, Bhavani and Leela.