Being lucky like us, our lack of planning landed us in India over the biggest holiday of the year~ boy do I love a holiday!! It is Diwali here today, and being with locals Jagdish & Asha makes is so much more fun! Diwali is the festival of lights, people light candles, lamps and decorate their homes with twinkle lights. The deity of Lakshmi symbolizes wealth and prosperity, and her blessings are invoked for a good year ahead. They pray on this day for a new year of luck and wealth! All last night and today we’ve seen and heard firecrackers going off which are part of the celebrations!
We went yesterday to the market to the famous Bengali Sweet Shop in Delhi! Seeing all the sweets (and the thousands of people buying them) was such a treat! Jagdish was picking off pieces and sneaking me tastes of all of the different varieties! Of course my camera was charging and I didn’t get to take any photos, what a mistake! This was such a fun way to really experience a Diwali custom! The sweets are made of ground almond, pistachio, and cashew nuts. One of my favorites (and Asha’s too) is a coconut one! They have real silver leaf pressed on the top that is edible! The taste is very sublte and delicious!
We’ve had a nice relaxing day at home and many of Jagdish and Asha’s friends and family have stopped by to wish them a Happy Diwali, have a visit and drop off sweets! Last night we also saw the girls getting their Henna or Mehndi done for the celebrations today!
