Happy Belated Diwali

Thursday was Diwali. What is Diwali (also known as Deepawali)? Basically, it boils down to being the India version of Christmas (plus throwing in some July 4th activities). It is by far the largest festival celebrated by India and is known as the Festival of Lights. Traditionally, it is a Hindu religious holiday, but like Christmas is to most Americans, it is celebrated by most Indians regardless of their religion.

I was really looking forward to this holiday here in India. I really enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year when we lived in Beijing. Even though S was off of work on Thursday and Friday, and we could have went away for the weekend, we chose to stay in Chennai. We were invited to our friends' home for a cookout and to light "crackers." The first few times I heard the word cracker here, I thought they were referring to something you eat. Nope, cracker is a term used here for fireworks. Almost overnight, cracker stands popped up on every block selling fireworks of every shape and size to people. Like China, local people here in India love to light off fireworks.

Anyway, unfortunately, we were not able to go to our friends' house as S forgot it was Diwali and scheduled a very important conference call. The call was set at a time that if we went to the cookout we would have been there for a short time before coming back home. By the time the call was over with, it wasn't worth going. I was really mad at S for ruining the holiday for us. Then, I found out that a local Indian had to go to the office to call in for the call. Let's just say S got an earful from me about not being sensitive enough to the local customs here. How would he like it if he has to go to the office on Christmas Day for a call? (OK, bad example as S probably wouldn't care.)

So, what did we do to celebrate Diwali at our house? Not much. Watched TV. Oh, and handed out money left and right. It is customary (and pretty much expected) to give all staff money for Diwali. For us, this meant giving money to our 6 security guards and to our driver. Even though we don't pay for these people ourselves, we were still expected to give money. I was actually OK with this as these 7 people work very hard for us and only earn about $100 per month. What I didn't particularly care for was that we were also expected to give money to the gardener, the garbage collector, and the electrical people (the ones who come to fix our electricity when it has been off for a long time...happens about once per week that they have to come out and at that time we also have to give them a tip). Does anyone in the U.S. give money to their garbagemen or electrical people at Christmas?

We were able to see a few fireworks from our house. Not many though. I was honestly expecting more, but I think we live to far away from the city that we weren't able to see the majority of them.

Anyway, I am making a commitment that next year, I will be harping on S from day to night for a month before Diwali to not schedule any meetings or calls. I really feel it is important to participate and learn about the culture we are living in. We don't have to totally embrace and agree with everything here, but at least if we try to learn just a little bit, it will help us to understand a little more the way of life here. In the meantime, there are some more major festivals and holidays coming up here in January. Maybe these I will be able to celebrate a little more.