Read this, you'll learn a little sumpinsumpin!

Hola!
I want to tell you about Diwali, at least in my experience here in Goa.

Diwali is kind of like the Hindu version of Christmas, meaning it's the pinnacle of all Christian celebrations (unless you're really hardcore and consider Easter a bigger deal). It goes on for a week and the concept as I know it goes like this: It mainly consists of prayer, spending quality time with family, and offering/eating sweets.

I had noticed this week that everywhere I looked I saw children building these massive papiermache busts and I was confused. I found out from our taxi driver, and from seeing them later at the beach, that these are massive kind of mascots that have glowing eyes and get blown up with fireworks. Fireworks were constant last night. Unlike Canada Day fireworks, these ones are on the ground (dangeroussss) and sound like bombs going off outside on the street. They also had some they flew into the night sky later on.

The coolest thing I saw regarding Diwali celebrations was this: About a hundred people take candles that are lit inside bottles with oil in them and bring these candles out into the ocean. Once they get far enough they let them float away. There were probably hundreds of candles floating in the ocean really far out, and you could see them gently drift away all night long. Imagine looking at a flat, black ocean and seeing stars, that's kind of what it was like. Stunning.

That's all for today Children, next lesson, using squat toilets...heh not really, I haven't even figured that out yet.