Happy Diwali!!
The Festival of Lights.
This is our neighbors house...
It is probably the biggest holiday in India - especially for hindus.
So basically it is the fourth july in your front yard combined with christmastime-like traffic and lights and with people giving sweets to each other like Halloween.
So basically it is the fourth july in your front yard combined with christmastime-like traffic and lights and with people giving sweets to each other like Halloween.
It is the celebration of the god who won the battle over evil returns home after 14 years of exile. Lakshmi is the goddess of choice to offer "pooja" to or worship to. She is the goddess of wealth, so they offer prayers to her, the statue on the left and they leave the candle burning so she will bring them wealth.
We had some fellow americans over to make peanut butter cookies and snickerdoodles. Then we ended up making dinner and having a picnic on our roof to watch the shows. (roofs here are flat).
There aren't high rises in our town so we could see pretty far with fireworks lighting up all around us! a few times we got a bit nervous as stray rocket firecrackers came shooting towards us - but no worries no one was hurt during the dinner and lights show.
Our landlords even put lights on our balcony(the top floor is our flat.... sorry no cows on the roof this year. )
Our Uncle and Auntie came up to wish us a Happy Diwali and give us some sweet buscuits (crackerlike cookies)
I was QUITE relieved to only have recieved that. Last year it was ridiculous in the amount of sugar that showed up at our house. I think i'm getting a sugar headache just thinking about it. Here is a pic from last year... 
this is our neighbor across the street. Apparently he's crazy. and yes that is a firecracker going off.... on his 2nd floor balcony. 
After everyone left, i went downstairs to hang out with our landlords
I met a lot of their family that dropped by and watched their son (who lives on the middle level of our house) light the really big fireworks with his family.
So to end the evening, Haley and I had a girls night in her room (bec it smelled the least like firecracker smoke), watched "Houseboat" with Cary Grant and gave ourselves pedicures.
