It was beautiful. The whole neighborhood was lit up with small tealight candles and clay diyas (lamps) lined up along the balconies, along the windowsills and scattered everywhere in the gardens. The area looked like a night fairyland. We lit small clay lamps with ghee (oil) in them and put them all over the house to light the place up. We had no electricity going, just the warm glow of the maps. I took a few photos - Diwali is photographers dream, everywhere you look there are gorgeous photos to take.
Later that night there was live music down at the local restaurant and snack shop, and the kids were lighting fireworks here there and everywhere. What a beautiful evening.
"Diwali is the day when King Rama's coronation was celebrated in Ayodhya after his epic was with Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. By order of the royal families of Ayodhya and Mithila, the kingdom of which Rama's wife Sita was princess, the cities and far flung boundaries of these kingdoms were lit up with rows of lamps, glittering on dark nights to welcome home the divine King Rama and his Queen Sita after 14 years of exile, ending with and across-seas-war in which the whole kingdom of Lanka was destroyed.
On the western calendar, Diwali can be anytime during October or November, and falls on the no-moon day during the dark half of the holy month of Kartika."
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