Diwali Day--Full! Fun!

Last week was Diwali week. It is a Hindu “Celebration of Lights.” It is technically a 5 day celebration. However, they celebrate for about 2 weeks. Fireworks are a big part of their celebration, and they start with that about two weeks before the actual central, and main day, of Diwali, which last week was Thursday, and it is a national holiday. Thursday night was like a huge fireworks display, over the entire area. Everyone doing their own thing. The individual fireworks will continue for the next week. Sometimes it gets hard to sleep!

One of the main things the Hindi’s due to celebrate is to invite friends to their homes to eat. We were invited, with our landlord’s family, to a neighbor’s house for lunch on Thursday. When went in there was a table full of treats, mostly sweets. After we had eaten too much of that, they announced that the main course was to be served. We were already full! But we then ate a typical Hindi meal – potato curry, chana curry, rice, and some other stuff – all served without utensils!!! When we finished we were stuffed, and as we were leaving, the upstairs neighbors came out and invited us to come up and enjoy their spread of treats!!!!!






In one of the flats, they had done a traditional sand painting on their entry floor. And we loved the pictures they had mounted on their walls.





We were also invited to the Kumar’s, an Indian LDS member’s home, that evening to share their treats and meal. Many on the non-Hindu Indian families continue in this part of the celebration, even some of the LDS members. I gained 3 pounds!(Ed) All without ever picking up a fork or spoon – getting pretty good with this hand feeding stuff! Finger lickin’ good!









Other families from the Suva Third Ward joined us: The Seveti's and the Mototobuas.





After leaving the Kumar’s, we joined two other senior couples (Terry's and Decker's) and enjoyed our own fireworks. We had each purchased a few – they are really cheap down here!
Another part of Diwali is the decorating of their homes with lights, like Christmas. Some of the homes were really lit up! Some of them leave the lights up through Christmas.







IN THE RAIN!!

SUCH A SUPER DAY!!