Sunday, November 23, 2008

Light, then run...


October 28th this year they celebrated the beginning of Diwali across India, the festival of lights... The part this blogger remembers the most was the fireworks... Not rockets, fountains, etc., though there were some of those. What was most memorable were the amazing number of firecrackers set off...

Some folks in the neighborhood would show off their wealth (and piety?) by putting on some ostentatious displays - many, many dozens of packs of the very large firecrackers were strung together (e.g. see at left) to form a continuous carpet of firecrackers fifty feet or longer along the street, and then set off. The din was always incredible and went on continuously for a good five to ten minutes. The air would stink of sulphur, and the next day the detritus covered the streets like confetti... It was so loud that each year on the appropriate date, before dusk began to fall we had to make sure to sedate our dog, otherwise the poor thing would have had a breakdown from all the noise.

Here's a very small example of what this blogger is referring to (video from YouTube)... Think much, much larger firecrackers, and over fifty feet's worth..

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