Diwali in Kolkata (lots of large pics)

[Recursion]

Diwali being a festival of lights, I thought I'd first start with some of the illuminations. These are from my mother in law's building.





A lot of buildings in the city get lit up in various ways:











Smaller shops may include a small lamp display:



And neighborhood associations try to outdo each other with their light displays:







Kolkata is full of shrines, and some of them get decked out for Diwali:



Shiva and Parvati



Sai Baba (a saint, not a god)



Ganesh



Kali



Somebody. No idea.









But larger, temporary displays are made for Diwali and Kali Puja (last night):











The whole city comes out; imagine if Christmas were during the most pleasant weather of the year and you get some idea.



This was early, before the crowds came out. Momo's are kind of like dim sum.



The Communist party is big in this part of India.



Ice cream.



No idea. That just amused me.



Neighborhoods also hire musicians for the evening.

Finally, Diwali wouldn't be Diwali without an absurdly dangerous amount of amateur pyrotechnics:



That's one of those mortar things.



And its explosion.



Those "spark fountain" ones are very popular



And these are some ingenious little toe-removal devices: you light them, and they start spinning like tops and scampering around the ground (I think you're supposed to have two "fight" each other).

Anyways, sorry for the big photos. Happy Diwali, everybody!

[Orangepeel]

1. Good pics

[panader0]

2. Thanks

I appreciate your photographic tours.

[Kali]

3. and how can I not K and R this?

or maybe this is more appropriate

[Blue_Tires]

4. I'm not familiar with the occasion, but

why are so few people out celebrating?

[Recursion]

8. It's mostly the angles I chose

Crowds don't photograph well at night so I mostly chose shots on the edge of a crowd with my back to it.

[kwassa]

5. I am waiting for the local schools to start celebrating Diwali.

We certainly have a large enough Indian American population here in the DC suburbs. The county school system has just announced that we are going to celebrate our first Moslem holiday next year.

My wife and daughter celebrated when my daughter was in pre-school, and I have a great picture of them in saris.

Thanks for the pictures. I like the significance of the holiday, the triumph of good over evil, and the triumph of knowledge over ignorance. We could use a lot more of that.

[AgingAmerican]

6. We will be in India for the first time in December

Can't wait!!

[2naSalit]

7. That's really interesting.

Thanks for sharing those pictures, I have wondered what that festival looked like in the various parts of India.

Happy Diwali!

[LiberalElite]

9. Just FYI Diwali in Queens Co., NYC

http://www.diwalimotorcade.com/