During the three weeks Divali vacation (Indian Christmas) I travelled a lot around, saw many places and went to many peoples homes.
The first days I mainly stayed at families homes to celebrate Divali with them, which basically meant a big relativemeeting. According to the festival people were preparing special dishes and especially snacs and although New Year was a few days after Christmas, people were bursting firecrackers day and night.
Divali is the festival of lights and so little candles and lights could be seen every 
evening.
evening.Rangoli - making pictures out of coloured glasspowder - belongs to Divali in the same way the candles do. The can be found at almost every door or in every court during the five days of the festival and make the homes look very nicely.
This is a picture seen in a special exhibition
After a few days I went to Daman to stay in a hotel at the sea for 2 1/2 days. Although it is known as a tourist place i could hardly find any foreigners and especially staying on the beach was sometimes very exhausting and annoying because my simple appearance seemed to be a big attraction, even more than in Navsari; and actually I had thought tha I was used to people staring and gazing at me all the time without any hesitation.
After coming back I went to Ahmedabad the next day. I had been invited to stay with an elderly couple which spends most of the day in an Ashram and lives very close to it, in the outscirts of the city.
I had a great time during those 12 days and especially during the first days I was mostly accompanied by some people in my age which made it even nicer. It gave me the chance to improve my knowledge about the Indian culture and gave me the chance to get to know the young peoples view. - Beside amusing activities like shopping I saw many ancient places and learned a lot about Jainreligion (the religion practised in the Ashram). I was confronted with a lot of spirituality and went to important places like Akshardam, Adalaj, centre for Dada Bhagwan and Gandhis Ashram.
Temple for Dada Bhagwan
Adalaj
2 comments:
Other cultures are so interesting to me. You told about the Indian Christmas. but is's not the Christmas like in the West, the celebration of jesus' birth, is it?
Sounds like you learned a lot of the Indian culture. The only thing I know is how Indian food tastes, we have several Indian restaurants nearby.
By the way, thanks for following my blog! cheers, jeannette
no its not the celebration of jesus birth. they don't belive in that, they have their own gods and divali has special days for each gods.
Indian food tastes differently everywhere. i had it in england as well, but here it is very different.
avila
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