I'm nostalgic, writing about Diwali on Facebook. Its triggered many childhood moments. While growing up, Diwali was the biggest celebration of the year, much like Christmas here. My father had 3 brothers, and all our families would get together at my grandparent's house in Ahmedabad (in the state of Gujarat). We lived in Mumbai, so this was a fun vacation with overnight train travel. Including us, there were 20 people staying in the house, and it was tremendous fun - us kids played, while the moms cooked tons of sweets and snacks which are synonymous with Diwali. The dads, meanwhile, would chill, catch up and play cards (Bridge, mostly). All of us would participate in the evening tradition of lighting lamps ("diyas") outside the house. After dinner, we would gather together on the driveway of the house, and burst firecrackers into the night. There was no fear of a neighbor complaining, as they would be doing the same. The firecrackers weren't quite the gorgeous ones we see here during Forth of July, but noisier and flashier.

On the day before New Year, everyone would stay up late at night making one big rangoli near the entrance of the house (to welcome the Goddess of Wealth(symbolically) and guests (in reality)). I would say Rangolis are similar to sand art. There was a basic white powder (coarse), and many colored powders (fine). We mix the fine & coarse powders to make colored sand, and use these to create intricate designs, on the prepared floor. You don't want to know how the floor was prepared, trust me. Anyways, since there were so many of us helping, our average rangoli size was 6' x 6'. The rangoli would last for a week, if we were lucky and someone didn't step on it. After that, it would be swept (as in, cleaned) away. On New Year's day all 20 of us would visit the temple and close relatives (yes, we have many more relatives!). As kids,  the main attraction to go was the food. We knew which house had better (read junkier) food. In the evening the same people would come to our house to greet us. That was weird to us kids, considering we had already met, but thats the tradition - to make house calls on the New Year Day.

After coming to the US, I've had to look up on the internet about how to perform Diwali rituals. Thats when I realized that different parts of India celebrate it differently, and even have a different history of Diwali. My family comes from Gujrat (and are called Gujratis) which is a business oriented state. So the Diwali rituals are centric to praying to the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi and ask for prosperity in work and hope for better business. In agricultural Punjab and North India, many rituals are for a good harvest. In West Bengal, it is a festival to celebrate victory of good over evil by praying to Goddess Kali, and so on.

The festival has 5 days (as I see it):
1st day: Dhan-Teras = Wealth-13th day
2nd day: Kali-Chaudas = Goddess Kali-14th day
3rd day: Diwali day (also called Chopda Pujan when we pray for business prosperity. In most parts of India this is the most important day, when they pray to Goddess Lakshmi)
4th day: Nav-Varsh = New-Year day (its our Gujrati New Year, not so for all in India) The new Hindu year is Vikram New Year 2066
5th day: Bhai-Beej = Brother-2nd day (More important in North India, but not much for us, since we celebrate a similar Rakhi festival in August - Hallmark would call that 'Brother-Sister day')

In Ahmedabad, Gujrat, the Diwali holidays last for 2 more days, but not in Mumbai. We would soon return after New Year's day as Dad would start working. It was sad to leave all the festivities, much like the feeling after Christmas, but we would look forward to the next festival.

Being in a different country, and having kids, I now feel the need to start Diwali traditions here - something that makes this time of the year special for the kids (and us). I normally hang the Christmas lights early, so I can also light them for Diwali. This year we did a Rangoli, and our neighbor's kids helped us. It was a non traditional rangoli - More like inverted sand art. We greased a plate, and covered it in the traditional red color powder ("Gulal").

 Then using a matchstick we "drew" on the plate creating a design. It was simple enough for the kids to do.

I cooked sweets ("Mithai") and snacks("Namkeen"), and found out that my son loves many of them. When we pray to God, we make sweet offerings so I ended up making a lot of "Mithai" (at least that was my excuse, instead of admitting that I have a sweet tooth).

We went to Diwali parties and had family over. Its a time when the phone bills run high as everyone calls friends and family to wish them.

We had a good time this Diwali and as usual, it feels kind of empty when a festival gets over. This year, though, Halloween is on a weekend, and there's a lot to look forward to...