The end of the holiday season is fast approaching! The size and scope of Diwali makes it a good comparison for Chistmas. It's that important.
It is also called "The Festival of Lights" and I've seen amazing pictures of places where it is celebrated where there are strings of lights everywhere and oil lamps burning. It's very beautiful. The word Diwali is actually Deepavali and it means "row or lamps" in Sanskrit, so that's why it is the festival of lights.
There are a lot of different stories and significances about this day. For me, I see the lights as a metaphor for our inner light, for discovering the bright Truth within. It is also supposed to be the day on which Sri Ram returned from his exile in the forest.
Wearing new clothes is part of the tradition, as well as giving gifts of sweets to everyone.
I have a new silk sari given to me by a woman on Ravelry that I will be wearing. I also need to get working on some Diwali candies! I want to bring some to work, to study group, to game group, everywhere I can I think of.
I got this recipe for chocolate burfi from my favorite Indian cooking website. What a great blend of India and America! Burfi is one of my favorite sweets.
I have a string of lights on my balcony and a rangoli pattern on my front door. I'm going to a party in Virginia on Saturday. I am ready for Diwali!
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Karwa Chauth
Completely missed this one! It was yesterday.
In my defense, I am not married, so it is not very meaningful to me.
This is the married women's fast. For the day the wife does not eat (and in some cases does not drink either) for the entire day. In the evening she gets dressed up in fine clothes, sometimes her wedding clothes, and waits to see the moon. Once she sees the moon, either reflected in a pool of water, through a sieve, or through her shawl, then she can eat.
This fast is for the well fare of her husband, although I could have done it as part of preparing for and asking the Gods for a husband.
The day is, I am told, somewhat like the North Indian Valentine's Day. You can see it taking place in some Bollywood movies, for example it happens in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.
More information here:
http://indif.com/nri/festivals/karwachauth.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karva_Chauth
This is yet another opportunity for me to be frustrated by the distance between myself and others who practice my religion. Granted, I let it slip and didn't notice what day it was. I found out because my Hindi teacher told me. She said, "I'm tired because today is Karwa Chauth."
"Oh I see," I said, "You must be feeling weak."
She continued as though she had not heard me, "You see, Hindu women fast on this day..." And she continued on giving me a long explanation of something that I already know while I smiled and nodded politely.
I've told her before that I'm a Hindu. It frustrates me that even when I say that, it is assumed that I don't know anything about it. I am educated and given explanations for things I already know all the time. I don't want to be obnoxious, though, so I don't say, "Yes, I know. I'm a Hindu, I do that too."
Naturally, when the Indian girl arrived in class she was told what day it was and not given the explanation, even though she is Christian and her family has been Christian for many generations. (Not that she didn't know what it was, of course she did, but I do also!) Argh.
In my defense, I am not married, so it is not very meaningful to me.
This is the married women's fast. For the day the wife does not eat (and in some cases does not drink either) for the entire day. In the evening she gets dressed up in fine clothes, sometimes her wedding clothes, and waits to see the moon. Once she sees the moon, either reflected in a pool of water, through a sieve, or through her shawl, then she can eat.
This fast is for the well fare of her husband, although I could have done it as part of preparing for and asking the Gods for a husband.
The day is, I am told, somewhat like the North Indian Valentine's Day. You can see it taking place in some Bollywood movies, for example it happens in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.
More information here:
http://indif.com/nri/festivals/karwachauth.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karva_Chauth
This is yet another opportunity for me to be frustrated by the distance between myself and others who practice my religion. Granted, I let it slip and didn't notice what day it was. I found out because my Hindi teacher told me. She said, "I'm tired because today is Karwa Chauth."
"Oh I see," I said, "You must be feeling weak."
She continued as though she had not heard me, "You see, Hindu women fast on this day..." And she continued on giving me a long explanation of something that I already know while I smiled and nodded politely.
I've told her before that I'm a Hindu. It frustrates me that even when I say that, it is assumed that I don't know anything about it. I am educated and given explanations for things I already know all the time. I don't want to be obnoxious, though, so I don't say, "Yes, I know. I'm a Hindu, I do that too."
Naturally, when the Indian girl arrived in class she was told what day it was and not given the explanation, even though she is Christian and her family has been Christian for many generations. (Not that she didn't know what it was, of course she did, but I do also!) Argh.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Holiday plans
Being connected to a variety of Indian communities has served me really well this year.
My study group people are having a Navratri puja at their home tonight that I've been inviting to. I've picked out a sari to wear!
I am also signed up for a few Indian meet up groups on meetup.com Usually their events are too far away (often in Virginia, which is just a tad far for me), or they are doing bar hoping or some other "young person" thing that I've never been that interested in. However, on Saturday some people are getting together to find places doing Garba and other celebrations and I'll be joining in for that.
I'll have to do my relaxing time after holiday season is over! :D
My study group people are having a Navratri puja at their home tonight that I've been inviting to. I've picked out a sari to wear!
I am also signed up for a few Indian meet up groups on meetup.com Usually their events are too far away (often in Virginia, which is just a tad far for me), or they are doing bar hoping or some other "young person" thing that I've never been that interested in. However, on Saturday some people are getting together to find places doing Garba and other celebrations and I'll be joining in for that.
I'll have to do my relaxing time after holiday season is over! :D
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Holiday: Ganesh Chaturthi
Guess what? There's another great holiday coming up in one week.
Next Saturday is Ganesha's birthday.
The celebration actually lasts for 10 days and I believe it starts (this year) on September 11th (although it could be that's the day it ends...someone want to tell me for sure?)
The big tradition for this is that beautiful statues of Ganesha are created and on the last day, parades bring them to be immersed in water. People sometimes make their own statues and "return them to the earth" by leaving them in nearby bodies of water.
I think this would be a tremendously fun thing to do with kids and they can craft their own Ganesha statue.
I want to craft a Ganesha that I can leave in the lake near my home that will not be bad for the environment, so my boyfriend and I went looking for non-toxic and biodegradable clay. What he came up with was a clay that's basically bread, a mixture of flour and water. Here is the recipe.
The other thing that we are going to do for Ganesh Chaturthi is making Ganesha's favorite food, modak.
This is a dumpling made of rice flour and coconut. Here is a recipe, from the website http://jaishreeganesha.com
"Modak"
Ingredients Needed To Prepare Modak
1. Rice – 1½ cup 2. Salt – A pinch 3. Pure Ghee (Clarified Butter) – ½ teaspoon
For Stuffing
1. Fresh Coconut Grated/Scraped – 1½ cup 2. Jaggery Grated – ¾ cup 3. Green Cardamom Powder – A pinch
How To Prepare Modak
Wash and drain the rice thoroughly. Spread it evenly on an absorbing cloth so that the rice gets thoroughly dried. After it dries, grind it to a fine powder in a mixer. To ensure the thoroughness of the grinding process, pass the powdered rice through a sieve. In a pan boil one and quarter cup of water, adding salt and ghee into it.
Slowly start adding the rice flour, constantly stirring it so that there are no lumps formed. After the entire mixture is added, remove the pan from heat and keep it covered for the next 10-15 minutes. Grease your palms with a little bit of oil. Knead the cooked rice mixture to soft dough. When done, cover it with a moist cloth.
Take a pan and cook the mixture of the scraped coconut and jaggery on medium heat until it turns into a light golden brown color. Make sure that it is not overcooked. Then add the cardamom powder, remove it from heat and allow it to cool a little. Then divide the coconut mixture and divide it equally into 10-12 equal portions. Grease your palm with oil. Now divide the dough of the rice flour into 10-12 equal portions into lemon sized balls. Then flatten the ball in your palm to form discs with a diameter of three inches. Press the edges of the disc further to reduce the thickness.
Next, place the semi cooled coconut and jaggery mixture in the centre of this disc and form 8-10 pleats with your fingers. Then gather them together in the shape of a bundle with its tip being conical. Seal the edges. To understand the shape better, take a look at the picture with this recipe.Steam these balls in a steamer for 10-15 minutes. Serve the hot modak with a bit of ghee.
Next week I'll put up pictures of my statue and how my modak turns out. Also next Saturday Chinmaya starts up again!
Next Saturday is Ganesha's birthday.
The celebration actually lasts for 10 days and I believe it starts (this year) on September 11th (although it could be that's the day it ends...someone want to tell me for sure?)
The big tradition for this is that beautiful statues of Ganesha are created and on the last day, parades bring them to be immersed in water. People sometimes make their own statues and "return them to the earth" by leaving them in nearby bodies of water.
I think this would be a tremendously fun thing to do with kids and they can craft their own Ganesha statue.
I want to craft a Ganesha that I can leave in the lake near my home that will not be bad for the environment, so my boyfriend and I went looking for non-toxic and biodegradable clay. What he came up with was a clay that's basically bread, a mixture of flour and water. Here is the recipe.
The other thing that we are going to do for Ganesh Chaturthi is making Ganesha's favorite food, modak.
This is a dumpling made of rice flour and coconut. Here is a recipe, from the website http://jaishreeganesha.com
"Modak"
Ingredients Needed To Prepare Modak
1. Rice – 1½ cup 2. Salt – A pinch 3. Pure Ghee (Clarified Butter) – ½ teaspoon
For Stuffing
1. Fresh Coconut Grated/Scraped – 1½ cup 2. Jaggery Grated – ¾ cup 3. Green Cardamom Powder – A pinch
How To Prepare Modak
Wash and drain the rice thoroughly. Spread it evenly on an absorbing cloth so that the rice gets thoroughly dried. After it dries, grind it to a fine powder in a mixer. To ensure the thoroughness of the grinding process, pass the powdered rice through a sieve. In a pan boil one and quarter cup of water, adding salt and ghee into it.
Slowly start adding the rice flour, constantly stirring it so that there are no lumps formed. After the entire mixture is added, remove the pan from heat and keep it covered for the next 10-15 minutes. Grease your palms with a little bit of oil. Knead the cooked rice mixture to soft dough. When done, cover it with a moist cloth.
Take a pan and cook the mixture of the scraped coconut and jaggery on medium heat until it turns into a light golden brown color. Make sure that it is not overcooked. Then add the cardamom powder, remove it from heat and allow it to cool a little. Then divide the coconut mixture and divide it equally into 10-12 equal portions. Grease your palm with oil. Now divide the dough of the rice flour into 10-12 equal portions into lemon sized balls. Then flatten the ball in your palm to form discs with a diameter of three inches. Press the edges of the disc further to reduce the thickness.
Next, place the semi cooled coconut and jaggery mixture in the centre of this disc and form 8-10 pleats with your fingers. Then gather them together in the shape of a bundle with its tip being conical. Seal the edges. To understand the shape better, take a look at the picture with this recipe.Steam these balls in a steamer for 10-15 minutes. Serve the hot modak with a bit of ghee.
Next week I'll put up pictures of my statue and how my modak turns out. Also next Saturday Chinmaya starts up again!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
A very Hare Krishna Janamashtami
We had a great time at Krishna Janamashtami at the Hare Krishna temple. I had never been to an ISKON temple before. They actually had a whole festival sort-of set up with stands with food and gifts, etc. There were Bhajans and Lilas and some Bharatnatyam dance.
I fasted during the day and broke my fast with the prasad at the temple. (Made me start thinking about fasting as a practice. I'd like to learn more about it and do a post on it).
Here is me all dressed up:
This is a new sari and I was extremely pleased that I found bangles that matched it perfectly. You can't see them too well, but they are gold, black, and orange.
At home I drew designs on our balcony. Here are Krishna's footsteps going into our apartment:
(And Thea wondering what's up)
At the temple, my sweetie bought me a brand new puja set. What I have been using for pujas is an old thaali and some bits and pieces put together and I use a tea light instead of a lamp. Take a look at the old "set" verses the fancy new set:
We met up with some friends, and we learned how to chant the Hare Krishna mantra. I thought it was funny that the guy who wanted to teach us was asking, "Did you know that today is a special day?" I thought, "Why else would I be dressed up in one of my best saris and driving an hour to be here? Do you think I was just wandering by in my best clothes?" He had us chanting the mantra to 108 beads (I have a japa mala and I was surprised that the ones he taught us on were actually rough wooden beads).
ETA: Oh, and I realized when we were chanting it, that the word "hare" sounded more and more like "hurray" which was sort of appropriate. I wonder where we got the word "hurray" from... It's interesting that for some reason native English speakers tend to call Hare Krishna "Hairy Krishna." Apparently that's what it sounds like to them. I don't think "hare" sounds anywhere near "hairy." But anyway, it felt like we were saying "yay Krishna!" which was kind of fun.
All in all it was a delightful evening.
I fasted during the day and broke my fast with the prasad at the temple. (Made me start thinking about fasting as a practice. I'd like to learn more about it and do a post on it).
Here is me all dressed up:
This is a new sari and I was extremely pleased that I found bangles that matched it perfectly. You can't see them too well, but they are gold, black, and orange.
At home I drew designs on our balcony. Here are Krishna's footsteps going into our apartment:
(And Thea wondering what's up)At the temple, my sweetie bought me a brand new puja set. What I have been using for pujas is an old thaali and some bits and pieces put together and I use a tea light instead of a lamp. Take a look at the old "set" verses the fancy new set:
We met up with some friends, and we learned how to chant the Hare Krishna mantra. I thought it was funny that the guy who wanted to teach us was asking, "Did you know that today is a special day?" I thought, "Why else would I be dressed up in one of my best saris and driving an hour to be here? Do you think I was just wandering by in my best clothes?" He had us chanting the mantra to 108 beads (I have a japa mala and I was surprised that the ones he taught us on were actually rough wooden beads).
ETA: Oh, and I realized when we were chanting it, that the word "hare" sounded more and more like "hurray" which was sort of appropriate. I wonder where we got the word "hurray" from... It's interesting that for some reason native English speakers tend to call Hare Krishna "Hairy Krishna." Apparently that's what it sounds like to them. I don't think "hare" sounds anywhere near "hairy." But anyway, it felt like we were saying "yay Krishna!" which was kind of fun.
All in all it was a delightful evening.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Holiday: Rakhi Bandhan
I was stupid and basically missed this one. It's today, but I just saw my brother yesterday... :/ Of course, he thinks this Hindu thing I'm doing is pretty weird, but he's always been good about just standing back and letting me be kooky.
As you may have guessed, this is a festival about family. It is for brothers and sisters. The sister makes a bracelet of sacred red thread and some decoration and ties it around her brother's wrist to show her appreciation and love for him. He promises to protect her. She does aarti to him and puts a tilak on his forehead and he usually gives her some kind of gift in return. And sweets are eaten.
It's a kind and love-filled day and I wish I had realized earlier that it was coming up. I would have done something to mark it with my little brother (and by little I mean the kid is twenty three and just graduated college!), even if not a full ritual. At least I could have taken him out for ice cream.
For more information:
http://www.raksha-bandhan.com/rakhi-traditions-and-customs.html
As you may have guessed, this is a festival about family. It is for brothers and sisters. The sister makes a bracelet of sacred red thread and some decoration and ties it around her brother's wrist to show her appreciation and love for him. He promises to protect her. She does aarti to him and puts a tilak on his forehead and he usually gives her some kind of gift in return. And sweets are eaten.
It's a kind and love-filled day and I wish I had realized earlier that it was coming up. I would have done something to mark it with my little brother (and by little I mean the kid is twenty three and just graduated college!), even if not a full ritual. At least I could have taken him out for ice cream.
For more information:
http://www.raksha-bandhan.com/rakhi-traditions-and-customs.html
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Holiday: Ram Navami
Today is Lord Rama's birthday.
In honor of that, I managed to get to the other temple in the area. The first temple, you may recall, that I tried to go to, was very large and crowded and overwhelmed me quite a bit. It is also a South Indian temple.
This was my first time at this one. It is much smaller and very pretty. I liked it a lot. It is a Gujarati temple.
There are various different things going on today, but I had to go to work and school, so I just stopped by for the morning puja. I did not actually participate. I sat on the side and watched with a woman who welcomed me over. She told me that she was not particularly religious, but she had come with her neighbor who was. She said that her religion was just to be a good person, respect elders, not eat meat, be kind and that these rituals are for the ignorant villagers of India.
The rituals are strangely specific. Certain ways to move, certain motions to make at each particular time. I love ritual for its beauty and its ability to calm my inner being, but honestly I do not believe that God cares how one performs the worship. In my belief system, honoring God is the same as honoring one's self.
I do still see a real value in the ritual, though. I felt fairly comfortable at this temple. Not perfectly so, but I think I will continue to go there and just slowly get more and more familiar. People will get used to seeing me and I will pick up the little traditions. I may also try volunteering for some events so that I can actually meet people and have friends there.
All in all, I think it went very well today.
Ram Navami is characterized by fasting or eating only fruits until the evening. Also, images of a baby Rama might be rocked in a cradle.
For those who don't know who this is, Rama is the main character in the other great Indian epic poem. I talk a lot about the Mahabharata, but there is also the Ramayana.
Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu, just like Krishna was. He was born a prince, but gave up the kingdom and chose to excel himself to the forest to avoid family conflict. His devoted brother, Lakshmana, went with him, and also his wife, Sita. Sita is upheld as the perfect woman and the perfect wife, Rama is considered the perfect man.
While in the forest, an evil demon king named Ravana hears about Sita's beauty and charm and wants her for himself. He arranges a trap. He sends out a beautiful golden deer and when Sita sees it in the forest she is filled with desire for it. Rama and Lakshmana go out to capture it for her. While they are gone, Ravana comes to Sita, disguised as a beggar.
She, being a good woman, goes and gets him some rice. When she hands it to him, he grabs her and spirits her away to his kingdom (which is modern day Sri Lanka). Rama and Lakshmana fight a war to get her back, with the help of a great monkey general named Hanuman. Hanuman is the example of the perfect servant. At one point he says, "In the physical world, Rama is my master, but in truth Rama is my self."
Meanwhile, Sita maintains her devotion to Rama. She holds him in her heart and meditates on him day and night. Ravana can make no progress with her.
Eventually Rama shoots and kills Ravana and takes his wife and brother back to the kingdom.
In honor of that, I managed to get to the other temple in the area. The first temple, you may recall, that I tried to go to, was very large and crowded and overwhelmed me quite a bit. It is also a South Indian temple.
This was my first time at this one. It is much smaller and very pretty. I liked it a lot. It is a Gujarati temple.
There are various different things going on today, but I had to go to work and school, so I just stopped by for the morning puja. I did not actually participate. I sat on the side and watched with a woman who welcomed me over. She told me that she was not particularly religious, but she had come with her neighbor who was. She said that her religion was just to be a good person, respect elders, not eat meat, be kind and that these rituals are for the ignorant villagers of India.
The rituals are strangely specific. Certain ways to move, certain motions to make at each particular time. I love ritual for its beauty and its ability to calm my inner being, but honestly I do not believe that God cares how one performs the worship. In my belief system, honoring God is the same as honoring one's self.
I do still see a real value in the ritual, though. I felt fairly comfortable at this temple. Not perfectly so, but I think I will continue to go there and just slowly get more and more familiar. People will get used to seeing me and I will pick up the little traditions. I may also try volunteering for some events so that I can actually meet people and have friends there.
All in all, I think it went very well today.
Ram Navami is characterized by fasting or eating only fruits until the evening. Also, images of a baby Rama might be rocked in a cradle.
For those who don't know who this is, Rama is the main character in the other great Indian epic poem. I talk a lot about the Mahabharata, but there is also the Ramayana.
Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu, just like Krishna was. He was born a prince, but gave up the kingdom and chose to excel himself to the forest to avoid family conflict. His devoted brother, Lakshmana, went with him, and also his wife, Sita. Sita is upheld as the perfect woman and the perfect wife, Rama is considered the perfect man.
While in the forest, an evil demon king named Ravana hears about Sita's beauty and charm and wants her for himself. He arranges a trap. He sends out a beautiful golden deer and when Sita sees it in the forest she is filled with desire for it. Rama and Lakshmana go out to capture it for her. While they are gone, Ravana comes to Sita, disguised as a beggar.
She, being a good woman, goes and gets him some rice. When she hands it to him, he grabs her and spirits her away to his kingdom (which is modern day Sri Lanka). Rama and Lakshmana fight a war to get her back, with the help of a great monkey general named Hanuman. Hanuman is the example of the perfect servant. At one point he says, "In the physical world, Rama is my master, but in truth Rama is my self."
Meanwhile, Sita maintains her devotion to Rama. She holds him in her heart and meditates on him day and night. Ravana can make no progress with her.
Eventually Rama shoots and kills Ravana and takes his wife and brother back to the kingdom.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Holi and other hoildays
First, let me start by saying that I finally made it to the temple. There was a dance performance there by some students of my dance teacher. She suggested that I go and it made a good excuse to check out the place. I'm possibly more intimidated now. It's a large temple and there must have been a couple hundred people there. I didn't go into the room with the murtis (statues of the gods), I just went to the auditorium.
I think the theme of this blog has been that I have to learn to not worry over what other people are thinking of me. It always comes back to that. The fact is, I can't control other people. Maybe some will be offended by me. Maybe they'll think I'm just some stupid American who thinks "oh, karma is like so cool, man." But that's on them to deal with. It is not my responsibility.
I am reminded of another movie. A campy 80s movie with a lot of heart called The Last Dragon. I don't know if you've seen it. It's a Black kid living in Harlem who loves Chinese things. He studies kung fu and has a Chinese master and he wears Chinese clothes and follows Chinese customs. His family doesn't know what to make of him, but he just does what feels right to him.
I read a book once that talked about the experience of being a minority. I think that is part of what I am feeling. Being white, I'm used to being in the majority and I rarely think about my ethnicity or the color of my skin. It's a completely different experience when there's no other white person in sight. Being surrounded by Indians makes me extremely aware of being different and being a minority.
Back to the point. There wasn't really a Holi in the traditional sense today. I went to my boyfriend's dad's house and his sister and her husband and baby were there.
Knowing that his family doesn't have any experience with Indian things, I thought for Holi that I would make them an Indian dinner and bring a variety of Indian sweets for them to try. It was a lot of fun.
I wore a decorative bindi and they had no problem with it. For some reason I find it easier to wear the decorative ones and not feel self-conscious. It's the plain ones that make me stress. There's a lot of information out there about fashion bindis and they're just good fun for everyone. But when you're wearing just a small, plain bindi, it's clearly for another reason. Anyway, there will be a follow up post on the bindi experience another time.
For dinner I made Malai Kofta, which is not at all spicy, and even people who don't like Indian food would like it. It is balls of mashed potato and cheese deep fried and added to a tomato/cream sauce.
Then I made a traditional "milk shake" that is served at Holi, called Thandai.
Then I made kheer (rice pudding), barfi (Indian "fudge"), sesame gajjak (crunchy candy), and gulab jamun (which is the dessert you get at most Indian restaurants, deep fried flour balls soaked in syrup).
I did a lot of cooking! Totally worth it, though. Everyone said they learned a lot and enjoyed the food.
ABOUT HOLIDAYS
There are a lot of Hindu holidays. Also, in general, Indians like to celebrate and will celebrate any holiday for any religion around.
Interestingly, there is no Hindu holiday around the winter equinox. Probably because of the climate in India, but that's just a guess.
The big one that tends to get compared to Christmas is the Indian new year, Divali, also known as the festival of lights. That is in October usually. It depends because the Indian calender goes on a lunar cycle. There is also some confusion over time zones. India is a full day ahead of us, so there is disagreement over whether Americans should be celebrating at the same time as in India or on the same calendar day.
There is also a holiday where sisters make red thread bracelets for their brothers and the brothers promise to protect their sisters.
There are many surrounding the different events in the epic story, The Ramayana. For example, Rama's birthday and the day that Rama defeated the demon Ravana.
There's the birthday of Ganesha and the birthday of Krishna.
There's "Shiva's great night."
I think what I'll do is discuss each one in more depth as it comes up in the coming year.
Holi does not have a lot of religious significance. There is a story about a brave prince who goes into a fire and is not burned, proving his devotion to God. I look at it like Easter. Yeah, there's some stories about it's significance, but it's really just a chance to have fun and celebrate the spring time. Things in India get extremely messy. You can look up Google images for Holi and see people drenched in color. Another place to see it in action is the movie Outsourced. It's a "cross over" movie, an American movie taking place in India. The American guy gets very surprised by Holi.
My boyfriend's step-mom still wants to do it, she thought it sounded so fun, so she said when the snow melts we'll make a bonfire and throw colored rice powder.
Here's me at Holi last year:
I think the theme of this blog has been that I have to learn to not worry over what other people are thinking of me. It always comes back to that. The fact is, I can't control other people. Maybe some will be offended by me. Maybe they'll think I'm just some stupid American who thinks "oh, karma is like so cool, man." But that's on them to deal with. It is not my responsibility.
I am reminded of another movie. A campy 80s movie with a lot of heart called The Last Dragon. I don't know if you've seen it. It's a Black kid living in Harlem who loves Chinese things. He studies kung fu and has a Chinese master and he wears Chinese clothes and follows Chinese customs. His family doesn't know what to make of him, but he just does what feels right to him.
I read a book once that talked about the experience of being a minority. I think that is part of what I am feeling. Being white, I'm used to being in the majority and I rarely think about my ethnicity or the color of my skin. It's a completely different experience when there's no other white person in sight. Being surrounded by Indians makes me extremely aware of being different and being a minority.
Back to the point. There wasn't really a Holi in the traditional sense today. I went to my boyfriend's dad's house and his sister and her husband and baby were there.
Knowing that his family doesn't have any experience with Indian things, I thought for Holi that I would make them an Indian dinner and bring a variety of Indian sweets for them to try. It was a lot of fun.
I wore a decorative bindi and they had no problem with it. For some reason I find it easier to wear the decorative ones and not feel self-conscious. It's the plain ones that make me stress. There's a lot of information out there about fashion bindis and they're just good fun for everyone. But when you're wearing just a small, plain bindi, it's clearly for another reason. Anyway, there will be a follow up post on the bindi experience another time.
For dinner I made Malai Kofta, which is not at all spicy, and even people who don't like Indian food would like it. It is balls of mashed potato and cheese deep fried and added to a tomato/cream sauce.
Then I made a traditional "milk shake" that is served at Holi, called Thandai.
Then I made kheer (rice pudding), barfi (Indian "fudge"), sesame gajjak (crunchy candy), and gulab jamun (which is the dessert you get at most Indian restaurants, deep fried flour balls soaked in syrup).
I did a lot of cooking! Totally worth it, though. Everyone said they learned a lot and enjoyed the food.
ABOUT HOLIDAYS
There are a lot of Hindu holidays. Also, in general, Indians like to celebrate and will celebrate any holiday for any religion around.
Interestingly, there is no Hindu holiday around the winter equinox. Probably because of the climate in India, but that's just a guess.
The big one that tends to get compared to Christmas is the Indian new year, Divali, also known as the festival of lights. That is in October usually. It depends because the Indian calender goes on a lunar cycle. There is also some confusion over time zones. India is a full day ahead of us, so there is disagreement over whether Americans should be celebrating at the same time as in India or on the same calendar day.
There is also a holiday where sisters make red thread bracelets for their brothers and the brothers promise to protect their sisters.
There are many surrounding the different events in the epic story, The Ramayana. For example, Rama's birthday and the day that Rama defeated the demon Ravana.
There's the birthday of Ganesha and the birthday of Krishna.
There's "Shiva's great night."
I think what I'll do is discuss each one in more depth as it comes up in the coming year.
Holi does not have a lot of religious significance. There is a story about a brave prince who goes into a fire and is not burned, proving his devotion to God. I look at it like Easter. Yeah, there's some stories about it's significance, but it's really just a chance to have fun and celebrate the spring time. Things in India get extremely messy. You can look up Google images for Holi and see people drenched in color. Another place to see it in action is the movie Outsourced. It's a "cross over" movie, an American movie taking place in India. The American guy gets very surprised by Holi.
My boyfriend's step-mom still wants to do it, she thought it sounded so fun, so she said when the snow melts we'll make a bonfire and throw colored rice powder.
Here's me at Holi last year:
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