I've mentioned before that each religious group in Mauritius gets two public holidays a year, celebrated by everyone. The 11th November was Diwali, the biggest celebration of the year for the Hindu majority on the island. I missed it last year, so this time I wanted to see how Mauritius celebrates the festival of lights.
Merv told me that when he was little, every house in the neighbourhood was lit up with hundreds of "diya" - little clay pots holding candles - along driveways and window sills, in front of doors and up staircases. In this celebration of light over darkness, people would walk around the streets, admiring the lights and sharing traditional sweets with friends and family.
Our neighbourhood is mainly ex-pats and fishermen (who are generally Catholic) so there weren't a lot of lights around, and we decided to drive to some of the places that Merv visited with his family as a child. Unfortunately, Mauritius and Diwali have been modernised since then, and nowadays it's all about the electric lights. It was a bit like Blackpool illuminations which, although impressive, wasn't really what I was hoping for. I'm not very good at night photography at the best of times, but from a moving car the photos were a big blurry mess. Here are the best ones, just to give you an idea of what was going on:
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| A temple in Bambous |
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| House in Port Louis |
Here's one of the worst, just for fun. I actually think it's quite artistic...
As well as the lights, Hindus also decorate their houses with "rangoli," which are patterns created on the ground using coloured flour or rice, flower petals or sand. They are decorative, but also said to bring luck and are a sacred welcome place for Hindu deities. Merv's family in the north were a bit too far away for a spur of the moment visit, so we didn't actually see any of these, but luckily my friend Pascale and her daughters made some in their garden and she let me use the photos on the blog.
The other important aspect of Diwali, and the one that non-Hindus get the most excited about, is the sharing of traditional Indian cakes. People make hundreds of them and hand them out to friends, neighbours and colleagues in little bags like we used to be given after a birthday party; a kind of Happy Diwali party bag. The most common one is the sweet potato cake. I found a recipe for on this great Mauritian food website, just in case anyone wants to try them at home. Bon Appétit!
