In India.
Just got a wonderful email from my Indian nephew and his wife, both of who are Jain, not Christian. They are just so adorable. They sent a picture of them both dressed in their Santa hats along with this message
Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and wonderful New Year! We miss you!
Please convey our Christmas greetings to all the family members.
love,
Signed by them both and my nephew's parents, who "dropped by" to visit last fall. My oldest nephew is heading to India tomorrow for a visit. Unfortunately he will just miss Makar Sankranti or Patang, India's amazing kite festival. I have seen the pictures of this wonderful holiday and it's truly amazing.
So a late Merry Christmas all across the world.
More information on the Indian Kite Festival. Held January 14th. They spend days and weeks creating their kites. They line the strings with a colorful mixture with shards of glass.
The reason:
They fly their kites into other kites and use the glass sharded string to cut their neighbors kite strings.
Photo by my Indian nephew. All Rights Reserved.
Several years ago my nephews vacationed in Thailand for Christmas and New Years. When they saw the beautiful fire lanterns, my Indian nephew studied the design and took the tradition "back home" After two years of lighting the lanterns during the night in India, many have now copied the fire lanterns and the kite festival also is celebrated with thousands of fire lanterns.
Oh how I wish I could be in India when they celebrate their kite festival and visit with our "family" from the other side of the earth.
Photo by my Indian nephew. All Rights Reserved.
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6 comments:
Judy tells me to go fly a kite all the time.
When we were kids, we bought this "giant weather balloon" (from the back of a comic book) which was panels of tissue paper you glued together and made a hot air balloon out of with a tray and a candle.
UFO reports abounded.
Its neat your nephew imported a "tradition" that seems to be catching on.
You can find the Thailand fire lanterns online. The last time my Indian nephew was at my sister's, we lit some of them and it was amazing how fast and how high they go. We were a bit worried about the "legalities" since most fireworks are illegal in Indiana, but they were up and gone in no time, just a small speck of light in the sky and then burn out.
I'd like to find some to let go on New Years Eve so the grandkids could watch, but I've thought about it a little two late. We just make sure we never set them off if there has been any type of drought.
My Indian family makes hundreds of them for the kite festival. They use a specific type of paper and cut toilet paper rolls into about 1 inch thick. They soak them in paraffin and then attach them to the lanterns with wires.
The preparation for the kite festivals takes weeks and apparently most families have a mass production in getting ready for the festival.
Maybe I should just do an entire post for their festival. I could steal hundreds of pictures he has sent us throughout the years. As you can see from the pictures, he is an amazing photographer.
Merry Christmas!
That's some cutthroat kite competition, btw..
Hope you had a good Christmas too Gia.
And you're not kidding about the kite competition. The lining of the kite strings, as shown in the pictures leaves their hands with small cuts all over them.
Apparently the sky is filled with the kites being flown from the rooftops and then tangling the strings with the neighbors to cut their kites loose. It looks like massive amounts of fun filled with amazing colors.
Check out www.facebook.com/patangfilm
Feature film set entirely during Uttarayan! Premiered at the Berlin Film Festival & Tribeca.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150453576390598
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