Dewali - Festival of Lights

There is a large Hindu population here in Fiji and there was a huge celebration for Dewali day - Festival of Lights.  This is akin to Christmas for Christians.  It's a time of gift giving and festive meals.  Candles and lamps in generous quantity adorn each Indian house.  It's a time when the Hindi people clean their houses, open their windows and welcome Laksmi, the goddess of wealth.  Wealth is viewed as a reward for good deeds done from a past life.  The goddess of strength is also worshipped and this rids people of laziness and evil.

Our neighbors invited us to go with them to a nearby village to see the lights.  The car ride alone was a wonderful luxury - it's been a while for us.  The village was ALIVE.  All of it's people were out walking, talking, sharing treats.  Even at the late hours the kids were up playing.  The houses were strewn with lights.  Christmas type lights but done very differently then we do it.  It felt spiritual and incredibly personal.  My favorite houses were the one's with many, many candles and lanterns.  I was so in awe of the night, I didn't pull my camera out.  An interesting observation for me was as we drove into the village -  it was obvious because of the decorations which houses were Fijian families and which were Indian.  They live peacefully in integrated communities, but they have very different religions and beliefs.  

This is a picture of a boy from Jonah's class making a powder painting.  Like many families here, his family owns a restaurant and their house is in the back of the shopfront. He drew the chalk outline first and then used different spices for color.  The yellow is Curry Powder, the pink is Tumeric mixed with white flour, and of course you can make various shades depending on the quantity of flour.  He dedicated himself in earnest and spent the entire day making a few of these decorations around the property.