Diwali, the festival of lights, is spectacular in India! Celebrating the victory of light over darkness or good over evil, I have never seen so many lights! Fireworks, fairy lights, lanterns and oil lamps, it was like the stars had fallen out of the sky. Homes and shops were decorated beautifully, giving a Christmas vibe with a high dose of fireworks and crackers.
Oh the fireworks! I have been a huge fan of fireworks for as long as I can remember. Today (5th November) there is an annual festival in England called ‘Guy Fawkes night’ (or ‘Bonfire night’), where there are huge community firework displays and bonfires! This is not a religious festival, it’s the commemoration of the day in 1605 when Guy Fawkes was arrested for his part in the plan to blow up the House of Lords in London, where the King was holding parliament! Guy Fawkes had committed treason and was burnt alive, so every year people burn effigies of him in huge bonfires and celebrate the King’s survival with fireworks (this reminds me of the Hindu festival, Holika). Seeing the wonderful displays on those cold winter nights could not prepare me for the fireworks during Diwali!
This Diwali the fireworks filled the night skies and they were constant! Personally, I could sit for hours watching the sparkly lights in the sky, but after a while the ‘booms’ started giving me a headache. It looked as if every rooftop were letting them off. Thankfully, Alfonso wasn’t to bothered by the noise. My husband lit some firecrackers on our roof and a rocket, which had not been positioned correctly, flew right for him. Luckily, my husband was able to do a ‘Matrix style’ back bend to avoid it. I nearly had a heart attack, next Diwali we are not lighting any fireworks!
At 11pm, the city’s fireworks had nearly ran out and we went for pizza. As we drove we saw the pollution, a blanket of smoke covered the city, I could not believe it! Such a beautiful festival, but the aftermath was shocking. It wasn’t just the pollution, the next day I read in the newspaper that several people (including children) in Nagpur had lost an arm due to firecracker misuse. For days after I saw children. who must have been as young as eight years old, light bombs and crackers in the streets with no supervision. It would be so much safer if there were more community held fireworks displays during Diwali, a little like we have on ‘Guy Fawkes night’.
P.S.
Some of you have noticed that I haven’t been posting much lately, thank you for all of your messages of concern! I am fine! I decided to take a break from the internet, I love blogging but sometimes the trolls and hurtful comments get too much and I need to decompress. Thank you ever so much for all of your support! Unfortunately, as soon as I decided to return to blogging, I caught a cold. I thought I would catch a cold after returning to English weather, not before!
