You might be thinking, what??? The holidays aren’t for another month plus Laura! Well let me share with you the story of the holiday season here in India and how we celebrated our Christian holiday a tad early in return.
In the month of October here in India the major festival of Diwali is celebrated!
Diwali has been given an enormous spiritual reverence in Hindu mythology. Quite popular as the festival of lights, Diwali is celebrated with great fervour in this country. On this day, people generally decorate their homes with lights and diyas with joy filled in their hearts. Gifts are exchanged and all the decoration and fun are followed by a puja or prayer ceremony in the evening after which people devour scrumptious meals and sweets along with their family and friends. It feels as if the whole environment reverberates with bliss and festivities.
This Diwali, My team and I got to join in on all the festivities with our Indian hostel friends. They fervently showed us how to celebrate Diwali, including wearing the traditional outfits.. I felt like an Indian princess!!
My favorite part of the night was going door to door to each neighbor, whose homes were decorated full of flowers, candles and warm welcomes. We sat in each living room and were lavished sweet treats and great company.
The end of the night we all sat on the rooftop with our kind hearted friends from all over the world and watched fireworks and set off a lantern while listening to some rad India tunes.
What a humbling experience to have and to cherish.
Our team sat down for breakfast the next day and brainstormed, what if we put together a Christmas party for our newfound family here at the hostels. In hopes to exchange our cultural holidays and have the opportunity share the Christmas story.
So, Diwali in its essence symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance, light being a metaphor for knowledge and consciousness.”
In comparison, Christmas represents the true light we have in Jesus who entered the world to defeat the devil, sin and darkness so that we may live with this everlasting joy in our hearts for the one who was, is and is to come!!
“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”
-John 8:12
Ok so… onto our Indian Christmas celebration, in October lol. The evening started with a humorous round of white elephant gifts that included; porcelain birds, random keychains and evening some sweets and money!! Everyone was hyped!!
The game culminated a togetherness, check out the video on Facebook!!
Alongside our lite up Christmas tree, we sang carols (Denise brought a standing novation!!) ate cookies and chai and were able to share the Luke 2 reference of the birth of Jesus with the party goers! A suitable end to the night was watching the movie “Elf”!
Two cultures, two traditions, two different beliefs. At the beginning of my race I would of thought.. what is the point? They don’t believe in the same things that I do.
Loving people doesn’t require full agreement on every issue placed before us. Loving people looks like open conversation, vulnerability and trust that God’s timing is perfect and we are called merely to be vessels of his truth.
From Diwali, to Christmas.. Happy holidays from India!!
“With God, all things are possible”
Matthew 19:26
