Wednesday, November 5

Diwali: The Festival!!!

So, what is Diwali like in India? CRAZY. Soooo many fireworks. Everywhere. Mostly the middle of the street. My night started playing with my host family's little kids, making chalk peacocks. Then we all had puja as a family. Puja is a prayer where you ask for a blessing from God. We sat in a circle, around a little group of pictures of gods, and then Mrs. Bandhu said/sag a prayer, spraying water on us and feeding us deliciousness, then 'feeding' gods. We each got a red string tied on our wrist, left for girls, right for guys.

We set off some fireworks, mostly cherry bombs, which of course are illegal in the States. Mostly because they are damn scary. They blow up, but with no warning, no lights, nothing exciting, just REALLY loud. This is pretty bad, because people set these off in the streets. Lots of them. Hundreds, and while people are driving and walking, and they never warn people! Seriously, I was scared for so many cars and motorcycles, cause lord knows someone would be seriously hurt. Or at least a car.

We had a special dinner, delicious, and then we went to a friends' house to watch fireworks. People buy really nice fireworks as well as cheap ones, and everyone, EVERYONE sets them off all night long, and through the next day, in the street, from their roofs, everywhere, and there's soooooo many! Seriously, it's nuts. The next day the ammount of trash was unbelievable. Definately an experience I reccommend!!

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