Happy Deepavali!
Yes Saturday was the Indian festival Deepavali, the Festival of Lights. It represents the triumph of good over evil, and Brickfields (which is apparently more Indian than Little India!) is definitely full of lights! There's been markets along the streets for weeks now, and a big Deepavali market at Sentral Station where you can buy Indian clothing, crafts, jewellery & sweets, plus all of the usual clothing, bags and shoes you find at any market. On Friday night everyone was letting off firecrackers, as people have been for weeks now (I've almost stopped jumping!) - Brickfields is the next suburb, this is close enough for me - and the fireworks at midnight were awesome.
Shamraj was spending Saturday with his in-laws because he got married earlier in the year, and the custom is that a guy must spend the first Deepavali after he is married at his in-laws place. He invited me to join him, so I went to Klang (around 45 mins by train from KL) to see how Indian families celebrate. His brother Vic studied in Adelaide and had a couple of friends visiting, so the day was quite, well, Adelaidian - small world! The family had an "Open-House", which is also how the Malays celebrate Hari Raya. All day people were coming to the house, being offered food and drink, chatting, watching T.V. It's all pretty relaxed. In the arvo we went to the neighbours place for more of the same. The little girls next door had tiny firecrackers that you throw onto the ground and they go "BANG!". I got in touch with my inner child and took a few lessons from them - I got the hang of it eventually! Actually, for me, Deepavali felt a bit like Christmas. People had been to the temple in the morning for prayers, there's kids running around pretty hyper cos they were too excited to sleep the night before, everyone is in their best clothes, houses are full of Deepavali cards, the shops are full of decorations, there's lots of food and drink, families and friends get together... it felt very familiar somehow :) It was nice to spend time with an Indian family too. Everyone at work except for the CEO is ethnic Chinese or Malay, and my only other family experience so far was when I went to stay with Farah & her grandpa - Chinese. So it was good to experience life with this part of Malaysian society.
To all those out there who celebrate it, Happy Deepavali! :)
Shamraj was spending Saturday with his in-laws because he got married earlier in the year, and the custom is that a guy must spend the first Deepavali after he is married at his in-laws place. He invited me to join him, so I went to Klang (around 45 mins by train from KL) to see how Indian families celebrate. His brother Vic studied in Adelaide and had a couple of friends visiting, so the day was quite, well, Adelaidian - small world! The family had an "Open-House", which is also how the Malays celebrate Hari Raya. All day people were coming to the house, being offered food and drink, chatting, watching T.V. It's all pretty relaxed. In the arvo we went to the neighbours place for more of the same. The little girls next door had tiny firecrackers that you throw onto the ground and they go "BANG!". I got in touch with my inner child and took a few lessons from them - I got the hang of it eventually! Actually, for me, Deepavali felt a bit like Christmas. People had been to the temple in the morning for prayers, there's kids running around pretty hyper cos they were too excited to sleep the night before, everyone is in their best clothes, houses are full of Deepavali cards, the shops are full of decorations, there's lots of food and drink, families and friends get together... it felt very familiar somehow :) It was nice to spend time with an Indian family too. Everyone at work except for the CEO is ethnic Chinese or Malay, and my only other family experience so far was when I went to stay with Farah & her grandpa - Chinese. So it was good to experience life with this part of Malaysian society.
To all those out there who celebrate it, Happy Deepavali! :)
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