Today is Diwali the Hindu festival of lights. There are fireworks going off everywhere around us. They've been going for at least the past hour. I walked out into our back garden and didn't know which direction to turn to watch...I kept spinning around to catch the bright flashes in the sky. Really puts Americans' celebrations of 4th of July to shame in terms of sheer volume. In fact, fireworks have been going off for the past four days...with each day getting more and more intense. Our neighbors were out on Sunday in their back garden, so we got a bit of a private fireworks display (though it scared the girls a bit).
This is one of the things I love about London. The diversity of the city is unbelievable. In addition to Diwali, on either Friday or Saturday the Muslim celebration of Ramadan will end with the Eid ul-Fitr. Also on Saturday is Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the failed attempt by several Catholic Englishmen to assassinate the king and the entire Parliament by blowing up the houses of Parliament while everyone was inside. Apparently this is also celebrated with fireworks displays and bonfires, along with burning effigies of Fawkes.
4 comments:
it really sounds like those Londoners know how to party!
BTW: White Teeth is very good if a bit strange. It had me looking like a crazy person on the subway cause on several occasions i couldnt stop laughing. Zadie Smith has another out but i have not seen it yet.
Krissy, I agree - terribly funny at times, and a bit strange too. I love the rawness, and sometimes the strangeness just makes to stop and scratch my head...but somehow it fits with my experience of life here, if that makes any sense.
Oh, and the fireworks have been going for almost 3 hours now.
Dan,
I thought Guy Fawkes was awesome when we lived there last year. Each night leading up to it seemed to grow more and more intense, with the night of the holiday sounding more like a war zone than anything else.
try to get some sleep.....
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