Diwali holiday

Today is the 3rd Monday in a row that we have celebrated some new (to us) local holiday. On Oct. 5th it was Unity Day in Vanuatu, then last Monday, Oct. 12th it was Fiji Day and today, Oct. 19th is the public observance of Diwali. This is one of those holidays that goes on for multiple days however. It began last Friday when all the sisters in the Service Center, where we work, decided to dress Indian/Hindi style to fit in with the tradition observed by all the Hindi women here. A couple of the women in the office had extra suras and loaned them to those of us that don't own suras. In the picture above, there is only one woman who is Indian. She is 3rd from the right.

Let me introduce you to all my friends: (beginning on the right)

Diana, Sarah, Sunita, Eileen, Mele, Sister Erickson, Melika and me!

The Indian/Hindi people take this holiday very seriously. It is considered their New Year. For weeks before this date they clean, repair and tidy up their homes and belongings. Our landlord is Hindi and he has been cleaning and repairing ever since we met him back in the middle of August. Last week he was working non-stop to have everything in order before this date. He was even power washing the gate and the driveway and had his cars cleaned and repaired also.
Many people decorate their homes with lights and decorations similar to what we do in America at Christmas time except it is only for one or two nights of display. But the highlight of the whole celebration is the setting off of FIREWORKS NON-STOP FOR HOURS on Saturday beginning at dusk.

Two of the senior missionary couples live in a duplex situation and have this wonderful, large wooden deck behind their two flats and it is used very often for our monthly family home evenings and our pot luck dinners. On Saturday night we just happened to have scheduled our monthly dinner out on the deck and we were lucky enough to be entertained by the most amazing fireworks displays being put on by the surrounding neighbors. These fireworks are not the legal kind that we in the US put on in our neighborhoods on the 4th of July and New Year's eve... oh no! they were the kind of fireworks that you would see if you paid a lot of money to attend the "Stadium of Fire" or some other official fireworks show. There was a lot of serious money going up in colorful, breathtaking, nonstop bursts of glitter and glitz and sparkles! These fireworks displays were going on all around Suva (and probably all of Fiji) well past our bedtime even!



Note to Jason Perkins: Thank you so much for your amazing and informative comments! I would love to be able to connect with you personally and the Scherns would love to invite you to their personal blog. They are the couple serving in Luganville and who visit Ambae monthly. They have even better stories that you would relate to than I do. Send me an email at skasteler@hotmail.com and I'll hook you up with them.