Happy Holidays!

As the American holiday season comes to a close, I thought what better time to reflect on all holidays, both American and Indian, I've experienced in India so far. I’ll post links to more photographs shortly but it will take a while to upload them all due to 1) my slow internet connection and 2) my excessive picture taking :-)

DURGA PUJA
Quick Facts: A six-day Hindu festival that was celebrated October 1-6, 2011 (the dates are based on the Hindu calendar so they vary each year).  It is a time to celebrate the goddess Durga returning home with her children and to celebrate good (Durga) conquering evil (the demon Mahishasur).

Important Terms:

Sarah, Me, and Julie performing puja

• Vahana: the vehicle or mount or a deity, usually in the form of an animal or mythical being
• Pandal: a temporary temple that houses Maa Durga and her children and where the pujas are held
• Puja: worship
• Maa Durga, or Mother Durga, is the mother of the universe who is a protector, destructor, and creator. She has three yes and is depicted with 8 or 10 arms which hold the following objects: a conch shell, bow and arrow, lightning bolt, half-opened lotus, discus, sword, and trident. Her vahana is a lion which represents power, will, and determination.

A contemporary Maa Durga idol

Ganesh, the elephant-diety and one of Maa Durga’s children, is the god of success and helps his devotees overcome obstacles. Some also worship him as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. Ganesh’s vahana is a mouse which symbolizes humility.

Laxshmi, one of Maa Durga’s children, is the goddess of wealth and prosperity. She has four arms and is depicted holding or atop a lotus which symbolizes purity, fertility, and beauty. In Bengal, her vahana is the owl, warning her devotees against the dangers of being blinded by the wealth she provides.

Saraswati, one of Durga’s children, is the goddess of wisdom, art, music, and learning. She has four arms in which she holds a book, a crystal rosary, a pot of holy water, and a stringed instrument called a veena. Her vahana is a swan which represents using one’s knowledge for the good of the world rather than personal gain.

Kartik, or Kartikeya, is one of Durga’s children and a war god created to destroy the demons. He has six heads and carries a spear in one hand while blessing devotees with the other. His vahana is a peacock gripping a serpant which represents overcoming one’s ego.

Durga Puja, the biggest and most important festival in West Bengal, was something I had been hearing about since arriving in Kolkata but until I experienced it, could not fully understand what makes it so magical. All I knew was that people would wear their finest dresses, do something called "pandal hopping," and that the already crowded streets of Kolkata would be bursting at the seams as visitors flocked to the city to experience the festival for themselves. As Durga Puja, or Pujo, grew near, even someone as naïve as me could feel the excitement in the air as mysterious structures and light displays started appearing all over the city.

Me and the record-breaking idol

My initiation to Pujo began at 4am on Tuesday, September 27 when I was startled awake to something that sounded like canon-fire. I assumed some construction workers were getting an early start to the day and cursed them for disturbing my slumber. It wasn’t until speaking with a teacher later that day that I learned the 4am “bombs” mark Mahalaya, the countdown to Maa Durga’s arrival. Well, if it’s for Maa Durga, I suppose it’s alright. Although my introduction to the festival didn’t start off on exactly the right foot, everything went uphill from there. While on a tour that wasarranged by a Fulbright alum from Kolkata and exploring later on my own, I was constantly awed by the pandals I saw. One recreated a Buddhist temple, another, a Kashmiri landscape, and another, a peacock that rivaled the size of the buildings around it. There was even one in my neighborhood that boasted the biggest Durga idol ever at 52 feet high. The pandals looked like stone or wood structures from a distance but close up, you could see that most were constructed of bamboo poles wrapped in cloth and expertly painted. Styrofoam embellishments were often used and on the inside, each pandal included a chandelier as big as physics and finances would allow.More elaborate pandals used fiber glass, high-quality wood, cement, and recycled glass to create the final masterpiece. The pandals and the idols inside them were truly works of art. It wasn’t until evening, or technically, early morning, that I felt the true magic of Pujo.

A traditional idol with a glittering chandelier

When the sun went down, the city was enveloped by twinkling lights; lights forming canopies over the streets, lights cascading from buildings, and lights on animated displays that formed arches to the pandals. Even at 2am, the streets were full of people and I found that I was no longer an individual but instead, part of a pandal-hopping blob. Rather than fight the crowd, I let myself be gently led from one pandal to another and was never disappointed by where the blob took me. The energy was palpable and even this girl who likes her sleep more than her chocolate (you heard me!) wished she could stay out all night. After a full 13 hours of pandal hopping, I felt like I finally understood the festival that was once such an enigma to me and during the immersion of the idols in the Hoogley River two days later, couldn’t help but feel a little sad to see Maa Durga go, even knowing aashchhe bochhor abar hobe, it will happen again next year.

The Fulbright Tour

DIWALI or DEEPAUVALI
Quick Facts: A five-day Hindu festival, literally meaning "string of lights," that was celebrated October 24-28, 2011 (the dates are based on the Hindu calendar so they vary each year).  It is a time to celebrate good (Lord Krishna and Sathyabhama) conquering evil (the demon Naraka); to worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity; to celebrate Bhai Dooj, a time when sisters invite their brothers to their home; and to worship the goddess Kali (this is actually a part of Kali Puja which is prevalent in West Bengal and coincides with Diwali/Lakshmi Puja).

If I could some up Diwali in one word that word would be loud, for although Diwali is the Festival of Lights, it also is a time to ward off evil and what better way to do so than to set off as many firecrackers as possible! Even my students got into the act. Starting a week before the festival, the occasional bomb would go off during school. When I first heard the blast, as with Durga Puja, I again attributed it to construction but my students set me straight and said, “Bomb, Mam, bomb!” I soon learned that the word bomb does not carry quite the same concern here as it is in the US and basically means a really loud, booming firecracker.

Titli, Me, and Sarah celebrating Diwali

 The bombs became more frequent as the week drew on until Diwali finally arrived. That’s when the real noise began. Families from all over the neighborhood would set off fireworks and firecrackers in the middle of the street, and not just sparklers and bottle caps, but actual fireworks. At first, Sarah and I were excited at all the activity but once the fireworks started exploding right outside our 5th floor apartment window and smoke started pouring into our rooms, we shut the windows and ran for cover. While we didn’t partake in the setting off of explosives that day, we did light diyas or deepas, small lamps used to welcome the goddess Lakshmi into one’s home, who brings with her prosperity for the coming year. Because everyone wants Lakshmi to visit, the more lights and candles one uses, the more likely Lakshmi will notice one’s house, creating a friendly competition which explains why Diwali is known as the Festival of Lights. A couple
of days later, we went to our friend Titli’s house for her family’s celebration of Bhai Dooj.
 On this day, sisters welcome their brothers into their homes for an exchange of blessings, gifts, and sweets. In Titli’s family, this was extended to her cousins and a close family friend as well. After the blessings were given, the gifts exchanged, and the sweets were eaten, we went to the rooftop to light some sparklers while the last of the dinner preparations were being made. While I thoroughly enjoyed the community atmosphere of Durga Puja, the more intimate family celebrations of Diwali were memorable for a different reason: they reminded me of home.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween is not celebrated in India; however, it is not unknown either. While the history of the holiday may be a mystery, through the globalizing mediums of television and movies, most of my students had heard of

No words needed!

trick-or-treating and wearing costumes and all were familiar with Halloween figures such as vampires and ghosts. In fact, in my experience their enthusiasm for all-things-scary exceeds that of the average American kid. Halloween being the first American holiday we would miss since arriving in India (not counting Independence Day which, due to the magic of time zones, vanished while I was somewhere over the Atlantic), the other ETAs and I couldn’t let it go by uncelebrated. In fact, being outside of America made the
need to acknowledge it seem all the more important. So, between decorations sent to us by our families and homemade ones we pieced together with materials here, we threw a good ol’ fashioned Halloween party; Julie, whose knack for decorating could give Martha Stewart a run for her money, made popcorn balls, transformed Diwali lights into Halloween lights by the addition of tissue paper ghosts, and expertly crafted a string of newspaper bats; we plastered orange construction pumpkins everywhere and, much to the confusion of the vegetable sellers, found the roundest, largest, orangest pumpkins to carve into Jack O’ Lanterns; finally, because it’s obligatory and just plain fun, we fashioned costumes out of whatever materials we could find – Julie was a zookeeper, Sarah was a coconut tree, Irene was Snookie from Jersey Shore, Zoe was Medusa, and I was a deviled egg. Once the decorations were done, we snacked on candy corn, roasted pumpkin seeds, popcorn balls, and Dominos pizza while watching the Halloweeniest movie that was on TV that night, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. That little touch of American culture at the 3-month mark did our souls good!

THANKSGIVING

Unlike Halloween, none of my students had a clue about what Thanksgiving is or how it is celebrated so I did a simple listening exercise with them to introduce them this American holiday and followed it with one of

Federica, Angela, and Julie Thanksgiving-it up!

 the most important Thanksgiving activities, making hand turkeys and writing one thing for which you are thankful. Julie, Sarah and I decided to host Thanksgiving for all the Fulbrighters in the area along with a couple of other Americans (and one visiting Italian friend) working or researching in Kolkata. While we didn’t have a turkey, we did manage a roasted chicken thanks to a friend who has an oven in her apartment (a rarity around here), several different green bean casseroles, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, stuffed pumpkins, homemade bread, and for desert, key lime pie. With around 15 people over, it reminded me of Thanksgivings back home and Angela’s surprise activity of…wait for it…HAND TURKEYS made the day all the more fun. There’s nothing like channeling your inner child to put you into a festive mood!

CHRISTMAS

It was my first Christmas away from home this year so I was thrilled when my friend Alexis decided to visit me over the holidays, especially because all of my Kolkata friends were going to be away on vacation. On Christmas Eve, we did what many people in the city do: we visited St. Paul’s Cathedral for the Christmas 

Waiting in line at St. Paul's

Eve service which is attended by hundreds of people from various religions. Santa hats kept the heads of many a Kolkatan warm as we stood in line to enter the cathedral. The crowds are so large for this service that only a small percentage of people can actually sit in the church. The rest of the people, the two of us included, enter in small batches, stand at the back for a short time, and then exit so another group can catch their glimpse of the candlelight service. The most memorable part of the night happened when I was waiting outside for Alexis to exit. All of the sudden, the crowd started cheering as if

Santa hats!

 it were New Year’s Eve. Then I realized the reason why: the clock had struck midnight and it was officially Christmas. It was such a joyous way to celebrate! What impressed me most about Christmas in India is that people seemed to wish others a Merry Christmas regardless of their religion. While I don’t consider myself Christian and celebrate Christmas as a season of giving and goodwill, not as the birth of Jesus, in the US, I’m highly aware of to whom I am wishing a Merry Christmas. I know if I were in the shoes of someone who doesn’t celebrate the holiday, I might be more than a
bit annoyed with the month-long bombardment of all things Christmas. Here, however, things are much
different; when I left school on the 22nd, I was greeted again and again with "Merry Christmas" by Hindu,

Stars decorating a church in Fort Kochi, Kerala

Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist students; a Sikh man I met on a bus in Kerala and my Hindu friend Raghu both make it a point to attend church on Christmas; and in Kerala (where Alexis and I where December 26th-31st), mangers, trees, and elaborate paper stars decorate houses of Christians and non-Christians alike. Perhaps this is due to Christians being in the minority since religious tension definitely does exist in India, but at least this one time, for this one holiday, it was nice to experience not just religious tolerance, but religious inclusiveness.