Festivities

Bad News Update:
Lost my NYS drivers licence. Went to the Police, went to the Bus station, nothing. >:(

This weekend was a good one for parties, there was Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night and the Hindus of the area also celebrated Dwaili. For those of you who do not know what either of these are, be prepared to learn. We went to a ton of fireworks this weekend; people would set them off by their houses and there were organized displays all over the place. Needless to say, there was a very happy Rachel.

Guy Fawkes Night
Celebrated the 5th of November ever year to celebrate the failure of Guy Fawkes (GF). In 1605, Catholic GF was irritated with Protestant King James I of England. Because of his irritation, GF did like any normal person would do when fed up with their leader, he tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill him. Once he had accomplished that, GF would then replace the leader of England with a Catholic. Remember, this was right after King Henry the 8th had turned the nation to Protestantism after the Pope would not let him divorce his wife, and then Queen Mary who was Catholic had the throne taken from her from her Protestant sister, Elizabeth. Needless to say, the country was in a bit of a tizzy.

Somehow, the plot was discovered and it did not go as planned. So GF was drawn and quartered and in the words of the scary teacher who led my school's assembly the other day, "Feel free to go and find out what that is if you are old enough."

All across the land, people have fireworks(!!!!) and bonfires on the 5th, ours stretched into Saturday too.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence [or mercy] he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Hulloa boys, Hulloa boys, let the bells ring.
Hulloa boys, hulloa boys, God save the King!

Deepavali or Diwali

Diwali is the festival of lights in Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. To celebrate Diwali, people light small clay lamps and leave them in rows up to their houses to ward off evil. Everyone celebrating wears new clothes and shares food with their family members and friends and of course, the big one FIREWORKS! (I hope you can tell by now how much I really hate fireworks.)

The reason for this celebration is to mark the return of Rama and Sita from a 14 year long exile. Another reason is to honour (Word told me I spelled honor wrong :) ) the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi. This holiday lasts for 5 days.

Here are some of the fireworks we saw this weekend:

Please listen to the story going on in the background.

And last but not least, these were the coolest fireworks of the night! The angle we were at, we were almost directly under them so it looked like they were fingers reaching down to us.

Thanks to Wikipedia.org and BBC.co.uk for helping me with the information I needed to double check on.