diary 6: Happy Diwal-oween! 🎃🪔

Diwali! Yayy!

My friend said she had been told that Diwali is like Christmas for hindu people. Wrong! Christmas is Christmas for hindu people. Plenty of families celebrate it, including mine. Its not really about Jesus, its about consumerism and that’s what really brings us all together <3

In one of the ‘diary of a wimpy vampire’ books, Nigel (the titular wimpy vampire), complains that he didn’t get anything for Christmas. He said ‘Chirag is hindu and he got an xbox’.

However, in the place where I am right now, I have to admit, it kinda is like Christmas. First of all, lots of lights. Its also quite cold here, although it isn’t snowing.

There’s also a tradition that’s kinda like caroling. Do yall get paid for caroling? Because we do. Its called bhailoni, we go door to door and sing a song, its supposed to bring wealth to homes, because Diwali is the day we pray to the goddess Lakshmi, who is the goddess of wealth. Its not a thing all over india, this is actually a Nepali tradition im p sure, theres j a big Nepali population where im at rn so everyone here speaks Nepali and a lot of the traditions and customs are also integrated.

I do also speak Nepali in case ur wondering. It’s a very fun language, it relies heavily on onomaetopia. So if ur describing a huge, lumbering type of person, they’ll be describes as ‘gondrang!’ because that’s like the sound they make when they walk around. And when youre feeling sleepy, you might describe it as ‘jhap-jhap’, the jhap being the sound of you nodding off.

It makes more sense when you hear/see it.

It’s also a bit like trick or treating, because we also get sweets. Except these do not have red 40 in them lol. Its like traditional type sweets.

We don’t dress up in costumes tho, most people j wear traditional clothes, but its not a requirement. I wore a white kurta!

Yk i actually always wanted to go trick or treating as a kid. Its only this year that i realised I kinda have been doing something thats like a similar experience. Ik im too old now but hey, maybe i can still dress up and go to one of those halloween parties. Jk i dont like parties! Theyre too loud for me :P. Nah i probably wont ever really celebrate haloween unless the people around me are, then ill try it out 

The day after Diwali is dewsurey (im trying my best to spell it lol). Bhailoni is traditionally for girls and dewsurey is for boys, but nobody really cares that much. Dewsurey is more upbeat, they bring like guitars and drums and stuff.

I made 3740 INR, which is about 44 USD.

My elder cousin sister and I burst firecrackers the day after Diwali. I don’t really like loud crackers, like cherry bombs and stuff. So my dad and I bought sparklers and flowerpots (that’s what I call them, maybe google it if that’s not what theyre called where ur at). It was fun! We clicked a bunch of pics and vids.

Then the day after that (today), well not much going on. Visited a temple, had a really nice lunch that my aunts made, visited some relatives and now im in bed. Gonna watch anime probably. That’s all!