Snowfall and Halloween - Highlights of Winter in the U.S.

Snowfall and Halloween -  Highlights of Winter in the U.S.

• P.Natarajan ( from DENVER CO.
• 
  
• 

We are enjoying the Winter, staying in Aparna’s home in Centennial, CO.  The people in this County celebrated, a day before, Halloween in the Club House situated very close to Aparna’s home. The event was from 3 pm to 5 pm. A good number of stalls stood decorated and mostly women dressed in pretty costumes managed the show. Heaps of chocolates in different sizes, shapes and wrapped in attractive covers were being distributed handfull to children. The boys and girls turned up dressed as priests, court jesters, and many wore masks harry as ghosts. The clubhouse was decorated for the occasion and music was chiming to the rhythm. Sekhar, as a committee member, was displaying a visual color display upon the walls which went in circles played to a musical beat. People were hugging each other in joy and it was really heartwarming to witness the warmth even though the outside atmosphere was very chill enveloped by the snowfall.

Halloween is an annual holiday every year, celebrated on 31st of October, and the day being Thursday this year. It was originated with ancient Celtic festival Samhain when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. The event is  filled with mystery, magic, and superstition. People felt close to deceased relatives and friends. They set places for these friendly spirits at the dining table, left treats on the doorsteps and along the sides of the roads, lit candles to help the loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Today the scene is depicted as fearsome, malevolent and scarier. 

Halloween comes from ‘All Hallows’ Eve’ meaning hallowed evenings. People went from door to door 100 years before dressing as saints which is the origin of Halloween Costumes and treating the event innocuous. A report gives an idea of the spending to the extent of 7 billion dollars collectively for the Frankenstein and black cats with arched backs, illumined and glowing on the front of the lawns across America.

It also stands in as Harvest Festival where Harvest is Candy and revelers are dressed in costumes. It is a common sight that Pumpkins are carved and transformed as Jack-O’- lantern’ Face, candle lights flicker inside the carved surface beckoning the onlookers.                                      

The winter is assuming a mammoth proportion at this time of the season.

Snow is falling to the ground
piling up in an enormous mounds
Likely Schools canceled the Day
When children run out to play

An opaque dustsheet floats so light

Upon the roofs, lamps, and vehicles bright

Snow settles softly like a falling Star

Enveloping like a warm Cocoon  

Encouraged by the flicker of the first flumes

A sight to witness the Snowfall as if it were a rainfall!

pn

HAPPY DEEPAVALI 2019

Happy Diwali 2019 

 - P.Natarajan.

We are in Denver CO. with our daughter and family to celebrate Deepavali 2019. My thoughts travel back by a margin of say 65 years to give a glimpse of how the major festival was celebrated in those yesteryears, though I am not sure how much my memory could recapture the events of the bygone days.

We had lived in towns like Nagapattinam, Tanjore, Trichy, Cuddalore, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Tuticorin before coming to Chennai. 

When we were young, we looked forward eagerly to the zero-hour of the Diwali festival. My father would fire the packs of 'OOSIPATTASU' as early as the nautical twilight appears when the sky was still dark and the bursting sound would wake up all of us including the neighbours. Soon we would hear the loud cheer "HAPPY DEEPAVALI" in the air. 

Our mother would call the youngest in the family and apply warm gingelly oil on the head. Our grandmother would say " All of you finish bath quickly because the water at dawn is regarded as the sacred Ganga flowing and the bath is called Narakachathurthi or Ganga Snanam"!

After 'Gangasnanam' we come to puja where my father would distribute the new clothes, We prostrate religiously and feel elated to receive the new attire.  We would also get a glimpse of the savouries and sweets specially made for the festival and lined up in the puja itself. All of us would rush to the entrance after picking the crackers concealed in boxes bearing the name of each member of the family. Mathappu when lighted would emit beautiful and bright designs of colours. It would delight all of us especially our parents when the youngest plays bravado to keep the Vishnu Chakras dazzling in his hand till it is finished. Sisters and brothers would fire the Lakshmi Pattasu and serial crackers one after the other, creating loud noise and also dense smoke when our father would shout 'Be Careful, Don't run in the dark".  When the sky brightens up with the Sun rising, we would stop the fireworks and enter home. 

Grandmother would distribute a small quantity of 'Deepavali Lehium'. Mother would serve hot idlis and sambar. We would taste one or two sweets, also murukku and thenkozhal.

Soon neighbours would pay visit and exchange greetings and sweets. We also reciprocated this action. One thing was certain that the youngsters would prostrate before the elders and receive their blessings. This is a tradition.  

We celebrated Thalai Deepavali of our sisters in Cuddalore and Tuticorin. The rest of us at Chennai if I remember right. Those occasions added more charm too with the addition of jewelry items. Today the family members have their own homes, children and grandchildren. We visit each other if we live in the same town on the day of Deepavali. For instance this year we are in Denver and call them or forward messages of greetings.

Our daughter had already presented the new dresses for us for Diwali 2019. The bakshanams are under preparation and the air is thick with a sweet aroma. Before closing this mail:-  

Wishing every one of you "A HAPPY DEEPAVALI " and Cheers !

pn(s)

---

---