I grew up in England and loved celebrating all the Holidays. Christmas was one of 
my favorite holidays at that time. To celebrate Christmas, we would start a month 
ahead. Putting up Christmas lights, decorating indoors and outdoors and of course 
putting up the Christmas tree and ornaments. The kids would all write Santa a 
letter with our Christmas wish list. We would have Secret Santa gift exchanges
amongst the Family members, bake cookies and decorate them, and of course 
waiting on Santa for our gifts and stocking stuffers on Christmas morning.
Easter, we would love getting huge Chocolate Easter eggs. We never had an easter 
egg hunt there. I experienced that with my own Children in the U.S. when we 
moved here and they loved it.
We didn't celebrate Halloween but had a big bonfire on Guy Fawkes Day on 
November 5th to celebrate the survival of King James I who survived an 
assassination attempt.
Once in U.S I loved dressing up on Halloween. It was one day I could be anything I 
wanted to be. My Children also loved dressing up. I went trick or treating with 
them one Halloween. The lady handing out candy said, you girls look adorable. 
Also referring to me. I was so happy. Wow, I'm one of the kids. Ha ha.
One year, we visited India in fall. It was one of my favorite memories. We got to 
celebrate Diwali with our Family and their friends in India.
What is Diwali? You ask. Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights which is celebrated 
each year in the months of October and November. It is associated with welcoming
Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity into your homes and also marks the beginning 
of a new year in India. Diwali also marks the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom of 
Ayodhya after a 14-year exile.
Diwali comes from the Sanskrit work Deepawali which means a row of lighted 
lamps. This festival symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and 
knowledge over ignorance. 
I love this Diwali celebration. Everyone decorates their homes with clay lamps, 
candles and draw rangolis in front of their homes. These are intricate patterns that
are created from rice, flowers, colored powders or colored sand. There's lots of 
fireworks to enjoy for five days as we run around with sparklers and draw pictures 
in the air with the lit sparklers.
Families and friends get together and join in the celebrations socializing and 
exchanging gifts and sharing homemade Diwali snacks and Indian sweets. You can 
smell the aroma of great savory snacks such as Vada's which are lentil fritters and 
spicy potato filled pastries called samosas. We smell Ladoo's which are besan sweet 
balls and Gulab Jamun, deep fried cheese balls in a sugar syrup. A favorite sweet is 
carrot based sweet called Gajar Halva.
I think now, of all the holiday's, Diwali is my favorite. Lots of great food, fireworks, 
fun with family and guess what? It's a five-day celebration.