Diwali Posted on December 6th, 2004 by Becky Arbin

This picture was taken on the 26 of November, on the holiday of Dev Deepavali. It’s celebrated 15 days after another holiday, Diwali, a great festival of lights during which everyone sets off fire crackers and plays with sparklers. Houses and temples are also decorated with twinkle lights.

For Diwali, I was in the northern state of Sikkim, which is tucked between Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. It’s a beautiful place, relatively unpopulated and green compared to the brown, crowded UP (the state Uttar Pradesh, where I’m studying in Varanasi). Mountains, forest and beautiful rivers make Sikkim perfect for hiking. I went with Brennan, another Minnesotan, to Darjeeling and Sikkim for our ten days of fall break. While others in our 14-student group went to the beaches of Orissa or the desert of Rajasthan, we wanted to see the Himalayas. From Darjeeling we could see Khachenzhonga, India’s highest peak and the world’s third, as well as the very tip of Everest. We hiked and hitch-hiked mostly, enjoying beautiful views and the company of Buddhist monks, Tibetan women, and other travelers. The nights in the mountains were so cold, I wore a hat, scarf and woolen shawl to bed. It doesn’t help that there is no central heating here, either. On the night of Diwali, we lay freezing, nursing trek-sore legs and watching ET on cable. Several bomb-like explosions went off nearby, and numerous rockets shot across the valley.

Later, back at home in Varanasi for Dev Deepavali, our University of Wisconsin group hired a boat to take us along the ghats of the Ganges. The river gives Varanasi its uniqueness; besides the ghats Varanasi could be any sprawling, overcrowded Indian city. Stretching the entire length of the city, the ghats (a ghat is any bank of a river with steps built into it) each have their own name and character. Assi Ghat, the tourist ghat, has broadband internet shops, bookstores and hotels. There are two main cremation ghats, as well as the Maharajah’s ghat and various temple ghats. For Dev Deepavali, the ghats were decorated with lighted candles, hundreds of them all twinkling. Many people admired the views by boat, although many more walked along the ghats themselves. We were warned to watch our clothing, our dupattas (scarves) especially from catching on fire from the lamps. On our boat, we each lighted a small leaf-bowl filled with flower petals and a candle. One makes a wish, then lets the candle float away on the Ganges. The longer you can see your candle’s flame, the more likely your wish will come true. Unfortunately, as I released my little boat on the river, it promptly sank. I must have wished for something that wasn’t meant to be. (I lighted another and the second floated well, and I finally lost sight of the flame as it bobbed in the waves far downstream.)

Some complain that this holiday has become commercialized and aimed at getting more tourists to come to Varanasi. True, the river was exceedingly crowded, as was the river itself with boats filled with people taking pictures. For tourists or for god, it’s still beautiful.