just like everyone's irish on st. paddy's day ... everyone's a little hindu on diwali!


so while you were all trick or treating, i was learning a little more about the hindu way of life. diwali is a festival of lights, a harvest festival, a cleansing time, and a night to keep evil spirits away. it's ridiculous the parallels, sometimes, between their philosophies and celebrations and those i've grown up with.

we decided to go as a group of international guests: Carolyn, Maria, Eileen and Kate from the States, John and Tony representing Canada (and Britain!) and poor Jenny trying to be a good guyanese host to our motley crew. we finally found a place to sit and watch the night parade by the seawall. we sat right next to the road, which, turned out, was probably good for pictures. the problem was that the floats booked it by us (they had a long way to go to where they were going to be judged) and i thought there would be many more than there were. so i didn't do well with the pictures or the placement on the float route this year, but next year we'll have it down!

as i wrote to my grandparents that night (who should be getting the letter in about 2 more weeks): Here on Pere street it is definitely NOT Halloween. It is Diwali night, the night of lights, when Hindus hang strings of lights on their houses and light hundreds of tiny oil lanterns by their driveways and doors to keep out evil spirits. They offer prayers and thanks to Lachmi, the goddess of prosperity and wealth. The night mood is festive; families are out in the streets; giggling childresn skip around sparkler-dancing, and everyone in this part of Georgetown comes to sit stand or wiggle near the sea wall.
There are vendors out tonight, selling pop and chips and candy. Some carry long refrigerated boxes on carts; some have plywood stands with a small naked lightbulb on top, hooked to a battery somewhere in the dark below. I can now buy a coke for $140 Guyanese, just like the locals (about 70 cents in the states). I get a litre. Heh heh.
Then what the crowds are waiting for ... the floats.

Uncanny was perhaps my first thought. Lights are strung EVERYWHERE. Over the windshield, down over the doors of big trucks, around the sides of the float, up the beams on the sides (most are partially enclosed). Made up children sit unmoving like porcelain dolls in the middle of huge fake lotus blossoms, ornately attired and disciplined in their pose. I heard that some of the young girls have their hands wired up so they don't get as tired during the procession. That does not sound like my idea of a good time, but maybe it is worth it to these young ladies for the honor of being chosen.

My apologies on these pictures. Taking pictures with the digital camera of moving lights at night did not go so well this time through, so allow me to explain. Some of the floats have live music: drums, tambourines, singers and stringed instruments that I am NOT familiar with. Some are DJed at eardrum-bleeding-inducing decibel levels. Some have huge fluorescent lightbulbs puring out pale blue-green synthetic light. Others have cloth flames dancing above small lamp/jars to represent the simple oil lamps used. The floats whizz by - their goal is to head up the coast to a judging competition, and we are sort of their practice run. They are not going slowly by for us to enjoy. The parade lasts about 12 minutes from beginning to end. No one moves when it finishes. After the floats pass, it's time to hang out until you get tired, then go home, light steel wool on fire and spin it around as fast as you can. The guyanese sparkler. Mostly just young boys do this. And you set off firecrackers, called "squibs" here (which totally confused me, as I thought people were asking me if an invasion of squid somewhere kept me up late the night before and I just frowned and answered, "No, I didn't know they were there.") Aaah, the jokes you can tell about miscommunications...