Diwali the Indian Christmas?

We just celebrated a few major Hindu Festivals here in my family home, Diwali which was a two day festival, choti (small) Diwali followed by Diwali. It has been described as the Indian Christmas and although I have celebrated it before in other parts of India this was actually my first time at home with my family for these auspicious days.

I understand the correlation between Diwali known as the Festival of Lights and Christmas. People go all out to decorate their homes with hanging lights, much like we do back in the west for Christmas. Unlike the West there are no presents exchanged, quite a few boxes of sweets were delivered to our family home but that is where the pressure to give ends. It was a relief to not have the material nature which accompanies Christmas with this holiday or so I thought. It exists but under a different guise; first I was instructed by my sister in laws that I needed to purchase new clothes for me, my husband and my children. After doing so I was then told of a day Dhanteras which occurred just before Diwali where something metal had to be purchased for my kitchen and any major purchases that are planned for the year will often occur on this day, many people buy cars, washing machines, anything and everything that has a metal content. Because I have a new kitchen I was told to buy all new dishes but we are still in the middle of restoring our Spiritual Guesthouse so we opted to just purchase one simple pot, my hubby assured me it had nothing to do with the quantity of items it was simply important to purchase something.

Small Diwali was upon us when I was asked to view my new bed sheet. "What?" I asked. Yes it was important to put a new bed sheet on your bed the night of Diwali, nobody could really tell me why and my husband called everyone mental (crazy) and I wondered about all of the people living in poverty in this country and how they could possibly please the "Gods" involved with this holiday without any money. But then again everyone finds a way to enjoy Christmas and I think it is more about the feeling that comes along with these festivals rather than the pomp and circumstance.

Other similarities I noticed included; cleaning, everyone I know in Canada does a nice good clean before they put up their Holiday decorations but here in India we had to clean the same space a dozen times, I kept being told Laxmi Ji is coming (The Goddess of Wealth) and not to be disrespectful but I was like "and...what? she'll be pissed if there is a speck of dirt on the floor?" I don't know maybe I'm just misunderstanding but I've mentioned it before I don't believe God or in this case Goddess will bless me or not bless me simply because my house was not "up to standards" I think our blessings has far more to do with the energy we pull in and the intentions we set.

The cooking was also similar in the fact that there was massive amounts of food to consume. We cooked all morning and ate all day, it was great. There was no specific foods to be cooked for this festival as their are for others in the Hindu Calender, there was no traditional food to cook like how most families cook turkey and mashed potatoes in the west (or nut loaf in place of turkey in the case of my home) we just chose favorite dishes from each family member and did our best to make everyone happy, my big job was to mix flour to make puri (deep fried bread). A job all of my sisters complain about but I quite enjoy, it's physical and you get to get your hands dirty, I've liked from the very first time I was taught how to do it.

The day arrived and decorations went up, it was beautiful, the family sitting and enjoying life together was wonderful but what I liked most and what gave me that nostalgic Christmas vibe was the sense of youthfulness rekindled by everyone in the home. We set off hundred of fireworks and my husband and his brothers giggled like school kids as they argued over whose bombs (as they are called here) made the biggest blast.  My son had some fear with all of the loud noise but my daughter embraced it. All of the kids of our home ran around playing with sparklers, cracking caps and laughing in delight throughout the entire night, my babes literally passed out from exhaustion, just like last years Christmas.

All in all it was a heart warming celebration and yes definitely as wonderful as Christmas!

There were a couple more festivals that followed I'll blog about next...