Diwali: A Do-It-Yourself Fourth of July

Okay, so I've decided I'm going to come back to India every year around this time, just to participate in Diwali again. It was amazing. I'm in love with this holiday and all its utterly dangerous entailments. Hey, we said it ourselves with our Independence Day, what better way is there to celebrate than lighting off fireworks. It's just that here in India, you don't just watch the fireworks, you light them yourselves. A kind of... Do-It-Yourself Fourth of July. Absolutely brilliant. If only fireworks weren't illegal in Massachusetts!
Diwali is a festival celebrated by Hindu's. They are celebrating the return of Rama from exile. You know Rama from the Ramayana? Well he was in exile for fourteen years and when he comes back, he is crowned king. So therefore, that is cause for celebration. Everyone buys sweets for all their friends and they travel to one another's houses giving out these gifts. I helped my host mom wrap her gifts. Also, each family decorates their house with flowers and paint and millions of candles.
It is known as the Festival of Lights, and for good reason. (Though it should really be known as the Festival of Frights...) The candles are one thing that portrays the lights, but the fireworks, or crackers as they call them here, are the bigger thing. At least in my opinion... and all of the children's opinions. Let
me tell you, it's pretty intense.
The night before Diwali, I went to the Waltair Club with my host family. The Waltair club is like a country club that many of the SYA host families belong to. Well anyway, they were having a fireworks show, like you would see on the Fourth of July, right? Wrong. It was the same, except that I was literally less than ten feet away from where they were lighting off the "crackers." Stuff was falling on my head. I seriously felt like I was going to die. I found myself praying to God, to Rama, to Ganesh, to anyone. I didn't think I'd survive the ordeal. But I did, I just had many random pieces of burnt paper in my hair and ash in my eyes. Otherwise, I was fine... physically. Haha.
The next day, on real Diwali, my host family cleaned up and decorated the house. Then that night we went down to the ground floor of the apartment. There everyone was lighting off an array of crackers. If I thought I had almost died the night before, I was probably actually going to die this night! Eventually, after dodging numerous children waving around sparklers and teenage boys preparing rockets, I decided to give it a go myself. My host father handed me a "cracker" and a large incense stick to light it with. The cracker was a coiled piece of something in which you light up and it spins around. I began to light it and my host father suddenly hit it out of my hand. I had been about to light it in my hand! Yeah... that's right. I'm that smart. So then, after my first mishap I began to light crackers while they were on the ground. Then after awhile I grabbed some smaller ones and I began to light them in my hand and throw them out into the parking lot. Hey, it's what the cool kids were doing.
So pretty much, I light off a bunch of fireworks that only professionals would use with a license in Massachusetts. And it was amazing. At night the week before and the week after people would light a few crackers here and there, so I got used to the sound. But on actual Diwali night, it was so loud that I couldn't concentrate on the book I was reading. I made a video. I may upload it if you're lucky. :)
Much Love,
~ Jenna