Not a New Year
So here we go again. Another important event, which is NOT a new year, for the Hindu Indians that is. Yes Deepavali, tomorrow, is the Festival of Lights and not a New Year. For the next week I have a mind to take cabs and spend more time talking to fellow islanders and keeping count of the number of Happy New Year greetings I will hear from them. And then maybe I should add that to the number of Happy New Year greetings I will get on Tuesday when the Muslims celebrate Aidil Fitri (Hari Raya). I'm still getting over the Happy New Year wish I got once by a cab driver who dropped me off, on Hari Raya day, at a Hindu Temple. That was really sweet of him but.... but...! What I really don't get is that when you explain to them that these are not events marking the start of a new year, they look so confused that I can actually feel sorry for them! But you know what... I was wished Happy Deepavali instead of Happy New year at work today. Yay-ness! :-)
A few friends asked me if we have new years. The answer is yes! For some, like us indians (yeendiyerns), we have actually many depending on ethnicity (eg malayali, tamil, etc). Most of these new years are around the same time as Songkran (thai water festival) and the buddhist new year which are more familiar to alot of Singaporeans... at least I hope so. I guess it's because a lot of the Indo calenders are based on the same constellations and positions of heavenly bodies. So anyway coming to the point, myself being Tamil, will observe the Tamil Hindu calender and the New Year for us falls in mid April. We perform prayers and special meals are cooked on the day but it is not celebrated like Deepavali which has obviously been turned into another commercial event with very pretty street lights in Little India. In fact curiously, some Tamils don't even celebrate Deepavali. They celebrate the Harvest festival called ponggal... which I really like because the house is filled with the fabulous smell of sugar cane, rock sugar, milk, banana, banana leaf, rice (cooked and uncooked) a special sweet and terribly sinful and f***ing delicious rice dish cooked just once in a year and of course the fabulous smell of camphor, apart from the vegetarian meal for the day. Again, in most Tamil indian households like mine this is a family event... just like the Tamil New Year, Panguni Uthiram, Thirukaarthigai, Aadiperukku and a whole list of other occassions which I really have no clue about for now, when it's 100% vegetarian at home. ....And in some houses those machocistic events like thaipusam and fire-walking are also important days.... not in my family though. I ain't getting my tongue skewered!
Ok so while I go deal with the get-married-soons, what-happened-to-your-hairs and you-lost-weights from the aunts, uncles and grandparents, I wish everyone a Blessed Deepavali.
A few friends asked me if we have new years. The answer is yes! For some, like us indians (yeendiyerns), we have actually many depending on ethnicity (eg malayali, tamil, etc). Most of these new years are around the same time as Songkran (thai water festival) and the buddhist new year which are more familiar to alot of Singaporeans... at least I hope so. I guess it's because a lot of the Indo calenders are based on the same constellations and positions of heavenly bodies. So anyway coming to the point, myself being Tamil, will observe the Tamil Hindu calender and the New Year for us falls in mid April. We perform prayers and special meals are cooked on the day but it is not celebrated like Deepavali which has obviously been turned into another commercial event with very pretty street lights in Little India. In fact curiously, some Tamils don't even celebrate Deepavali. They celebrate the Harvest festival called ponggal... which I really like because the house is filled with the fabulous smell of sugar cane, rock sugar, milk, banana, banana leaf, rice (cooked and uncooked) a special sweet and terribly sinful and f***ing delicious rice dish cooked just once in a year and of course the fabulous smell of camphor, apart from the vegetarian meal for the day. Again, in most Tamil indian households like mine this is a family event... just like the Tamil New Year, Panguni Uthiram, Thirukaarthigai, Aadiperukku and a whole list of other occassions which I really have no clue about for now, when it's 100% vegetarian at home. ....And in some houses those machocistic events like thaipusam and fire-walking are also important days.... not in my family though. I ain't getting my tongue skewered!
Ok so while I go deal with the get-married-soons, what-happened-to-your-hairs and you-lost-weights from the aunts, uncles and grandparents, I wish everyone a Blessed Deepavali.