Diwali

Today is/was Diwali, or, the Festival of Lights. I'm spending the day with one of the Peace Corps staff members and his family. It has been an extremely eventful, fun, and educational day for me. Diwali is a traditional festival where you pray for good luck and prosperity, eat a lot, visit family and friends, and of course set up a lot of lights around your house. It has been amazing experience seeing all the houses decorated with (Christmas) lights, candles, and all these creative ways of lighting up. I've eaten so many delicious Indian sweets and candies and fried things, plus a lot of puri, palau, roti, curry, and many other wonderful, delectable, spicy, delicious Indian dishes. Yuuuumm. The weight I lost in the village was just put back on today alone. The oldest daughter and I visited some other houses in the neighborhood and at every house you eat. We dressed up in sarees and kamees and all these pretty, sparkly, lacy, sheek outfits. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow. There are firecrackers that go off from all directions all over the settlement. Literally, I walked under and stood under these fireworks that in American I think we have laws against standing so close to. The best way I can liken Diwali is to that of Christmas in AMerica. Throughout the past week or two there have been major sales at every shopping center (given that Indo-Fijians own about 80-90% of all businesses in Fiji, they go all out on Diwali sales), lights adorn all these houses- the brighter the better, you spend all day decorating and cooking all these special food, and then you share the day with those you love gorging yourself and talking. I was told that traditionally whatever you did on Diwali is how the rest of your year will go; so if your a shop owner and you give a lot of credit, that's how your year will be: always giving credit. If you don't shower, don't spend money, etc etc, that's how your year will go.

One thing that really struck me was seeing the sexual politics of the Indo-Fijian community, something I've had very little experience with until now. At one of the houses, we had to move inside the house because men were coming over to visit and we as women couldn't be seen sitting outside with her uncle. The women, especially the daughters, have enormous responsibility in cooking, cleaning, and entertaining guests; far more so I think than in the village.

More to come... but all in all, a really good way to spend the holiday and to get out of Suva!