I love Diwali. In Fiji, it's a major festival and, frankly, so much fun that everyone, regardless of religion or race, celebrates it. And seriously, what's the harm in spring-cleaning your entire world, making sure that there's not a speck of dust, dirt or untidiness in a single part, even those parts you don't normally see, because the Goddess sees all.
And because it's a celebration shared by everyone, it's taken on a range of different features and thus evolved into a real Fiji-bhat hybrid probably unrecognisable back in India. The Fiji bamboo cannons for example. Every year, Fijian villagers make cannons out of bamboo and, down on the beaches and hills, use ghee and kerosine - I think - to make explosions that boom and echo all over our fair land. And they throw flour and water over everyone, which you have to wash off as soon as possible because it quickly turns into rock-hard cement. Good fun, but certainly not part of the festival as it was originally.
And the lights. Whoever can forget those lights.
When we were little, every Diwali we'd all put on our sweet frilly white party dresses and mum would pack us into the car and we'd drive around all our Indian friends where they'd give us wonderful sweets - jelabi and gulagula and lakri and bharfi and those wonderful Turkish Delight-like things only I've forgotten what they're called - and then, after dark, we'd drive around Suva to see all the lights.
When I was very young, everyone used simple clay lamps lining every inch of their house and garden - Lakshmi must be able to see everywhere properly - but as Fiji got richer, the wealthy Gudjaratis decked out their homes in Christmas lights, while among the poor the clay lamps evolved into these truly beautiful crepe paper lanterns ...
Thanks Maria!
... four bamboo spikes wrapped with different coloured paper with a candle in the middle - which always looked amazing. Or the brown paper bag lamps which I continued to use every Diwali when I lived in Australia.
These are exquisite. And so simple too. To make them, you just get a few dozen of those old fashioned, delicious smelling brown paper shopping bags, quarter-fill them with sand, line them up in a row someplace where they won't burn down your house, stick a lit candle in the middle and VOILA!!! I promise, this is the most beautiful gentle light-show imaginable, and an idea stolen from the poorest of the poor in Fiji.
Yeah, I continued to celebrate Diwali when we lived in Australia, if only so my house always got a much-needed yearly scrub-down, however, after we moved to Townsville, those paper bag lanterns were also brought out every Christmas. Had to. We lived on Christmas Light Street - the nickname - because we were the street where, every year, everyone went overboard with the Christmas decorations and thus we had our street blocked off to become a pedestrian mall so families could walk around seeing our neighbourhood light show. Except for us.
Not our house!
I refused to go all competitive and commercial - but mainly to that much trouble - and when the neighbourhood pressure got too great, I broke out the Diwali paper bag lanterns and left it at that. Everyone thought of us as "the poor house" but that was fine by me!
You know, I think I've told you all this before. Let me check.
Oh dear, yes I have. So, if you're interested, last year's memories of Diwali are here, but what do you know, this year's memories are pretty much the same.
But nonetheless, Happy Diwali everyone, and may your house be so sparkling Lakshmi is pleased with you!
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1 comment:
Used to do the bamboo guns as a kid using kerosene, sometimes they would backfire and burn off the eyebrows and some hair...
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