Festen

Tonight is the culmination of some kind of neighborhood religious festival that has been taking place for the past couple of weeks in the empty lot across the street from where I am staying. Celebration of this particular deity evidently requires ear-splitting music to be blasted from massive speakers from 7am well into the evening. I'm told these sort of uber-local festivals aren't uncommon around India, with communities creating their own rituals around certain favored Gods and spirits.

In preparation for the finale, last night they erected a curious lights display that shows a helicopter with whirling blades suspended above a twenty-foot-high neon outline of an elephant-God that is intermittently shrouded in a long green curtain. Based on the decibel level, this one would seem to be a big deal, but despite all the noise (or perhaps because of it) the lot has been pretty empty every time I've walked past during the day, save for a few playing children, lambs, and random unattended garbage fires.


Wednesday update: I guess I was wrong. The festival seems to continue on. No one at the guest house seems to know when it will end, though I keep being assured that it will only be a couple of days. In the interim, a bigger crowd of children seems to have gathered there and are playing tag, or some local equivalent.