Happy Diwali! Much joy and prosperity to our Hindu, Jain and Sikh friends!

[Bluebear]

[aquart]

1. Pretty. What is Diwali?

[Bluebear]

2. The festival of lights, symbolizing triumph of good over evil

May the light last another, oh three weeks until election day!

[aquart]

9. A festival of lights in the fall?

Okay, I need lots and lots of religious history here. Also, how many times did India change its calendar?

[Bluebear]

12. Religious history is not my forte lol

But if someone is celebrating something, I'm all for it!

[burythehatchet]

13. this is the aspect we celebrated when I was in India

Diwali also celebrates the return of Lord Rama, King of Ayodhya, with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana to Ayodhya from a war in which he killed the demon king Ravana. It is believed that the people lit oil lamps along the way to light their path in the darkness. In North India, the festival is held on the final day of the Vikram calendar. The following day marks the beginning of the North Indian new year, and is called Annakut.


Laxman, Rama and Sita, with their protector Hanuman

[aquart]

16. A festival of light just before the new year.

Oh, where have I heard that before.

Now I have to go and research the history of Indian calendars.......why, why, why.....

Because I am a deranged Velikovskyite.

[JI7]

15. Indian or Hindu days are based on the moon phases

i didn't know until a few years ago when Navratri seemed to be earlier or later than usual and i wondered why.

this year Navratri was early and around the same time as Ramadan. now Hindu Indians are getting ready to celebrate Diwali wihle Indian and Pakistani Muslims are getting ready for eid.

[Kiouni]

3. isn't it Saturday?

i thought it was on the 21 of Oct.

[Bluebear]

4. It IS the 21st. But in case we have office-dwellers who only see us M-F...

...this had to do :)

[Kiouni]

5. Thanks for the reminder

[REP]

6. My "Radha and Vishnu" Calendar Confirms that it is on the 21st

Gorgeous calendar; full of holy days of which I am not familar.

[shadowknows69]

7. Very classy Bluebear

K+R

[Binka]

8. What A Beautiful Beautiful Girl

Happy Diwali to my much beloved friend Shanti who lives in Goa!

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. Ooh Goa...

I had never had much interest in visiting India until the last several years. Brianwashed by my very WASP mother my whole life about how horrific it is (she's never been there!) All she can think about are the beggars and poverty-- she can't even imagine there might be a beautiful culture there waiting to be discovered.

My recent die-hard cravings for chicken tikka masala from Roti Grill caused me to go out and buy a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook the other day. And I LOVE it because she also provides long descriptions of the states within India, their cultures, and how their cuisines developed.

Bit of trivia-- did you know that the dish vindaloo was originally from the Goa area, and was originally called vindalho in Portugese (for "wine" + "garlic"). Then the locals got ahold of it and added TONS fo peppers and curry and made it a flamethrower!

Now I want to GO to GO-a. (Sounds like a Miracles song, eh?)

[burythehatchet]

14. during the night, on the beach in goa

the surf takes on a eerie luminescense. As the waves break they actually become illuminated in the darkest night. The reason is that billions of tiny micro-organism, which behave somewhat like fireflies, act as the neon light bulbs.

Quite stunning.

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. Coooooooooooooooool!

Thanks for the visual! :hi:

[Bluebear]

19. Incredible! nt

[xchrom]

11. happy diwali!

[Truthiness Inspector]

18. Beautiful picture. n/t