Then during the final week, I saw dozens of volunteers donating hundreds of hours of thier time for cooking, sawing, painting, assembling, cutting, decorating; you name it, it was all being done. One can't help but join the spirit and everyone took such pride in their work. I got to help a little with the cooking, decorating, and fruit cutting. But the best part was that Deepu and I got to put the fountain together (shown at the bottom of the photo, left of Deepu), stone by stone, leaves and all! And for the Aunkot, the mundir had a goal of getting 301 different types of foods but by at about 4pm, they had well over 500 dishes!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Diwali Celebration
We started celebrations for Diwali, the “Festival of Lights,” by attending the function at the mundir last weekend and then plan to attend two more at the other temples this coming weekend. The lights or diyas signify victory of good over the evil within every human being and the bringing of the Indian New Year. The event was amazing – not only as a stand alone function - but all of the back-ground and the amount of planning and hard-work that went into its production. For weeks, there was strategy talks, meetings, plans, ideas all being shared. 
Then during the final week, I saw dozens of volunteers donating hundreds of hours of thier time for cooking, sawing, painting, assembling, cutting, decorating; you name it, it was all being done. One can't help but join the spirit and everyone took such pride in their work. I got to help a little with the cooking, decorating, and fruit cutting. But the best part was that Deepu and I got to put the fountain together (shown at the bottom of the photo, left of Deepu), stone by stone, leaves and all! And for the Aunkot, the mundir had a goal of getting 301 different types of foods but by at about 4pm, they had well over 500 dishes!
Then during the final week, I saw dozens of volunteers donating hundreds of hours of thier time for cooking, sawing, painting, assembling, cutting, decorating; you name it, it was all being done. One can't help but join the spirit and everyone took such pride in their work. I got to help a little with the cooking, decorating, and fruit cutting. But the best part was that Deepu and I got to put the fountain together (shown at the bottom of the photo, left of Deepu), stone by stone, leaves and all! And for the Aunkot, the mundir had a goal of getting 301 different types of foods but by at about 4pm, they had well over 500 dishes!