The day before yesterday was a very happy day for us inhabitants of the hill.
For the past ten days, in mostly every home which practices the Hindu religion and in our school, we've had an idol of Lord Ganesh around. In fact, I believe children in schools have had holiday breaks in order for them to celebrate this God properly.
For those of you who don't know, Lord Ganesh is the God of beginnings, the representation of learning & wisdom, and the remover of obstacles. During the first ten days in which he comes into a house, he is prayed to twice a day. These prayers are called Aarti.
The day before yesterday was the final day, his birthday. Naturally, the celebrations were immensely happy!
For starters, all of us in MUWCI got drenched in coloured powder to the rhythm of some cheery Indian music. Since we are having monsoon season right now, rain also started falling sometime along the way, and from then it just got better.
We were asked to join in the final prayer to the God and personally, this has been the one time in my life in which I think I have felt the true meaning of prayer. You see, Hindu prayers are happy. People chant and clap faster and faster and faster every time while they hold a small fire in front of the God. Later, that fire is passed around the people, who warm their hands in it for a couple of seconds and then touch their eyes and forehead before joining their hands in a final prayer.
The reason I'm saying that I understood the meaning of prayer is that I was raised a Catholic. Although in this moment of my life I don't consider myself part of a religious group, I went to church when I was younger and I was used to praying as a form of asking or thanking the Lord for something, but always in a somewhat grim, somber way. Yesterday though, when I saw the people clapping and chanting for their God, it just dawned on me that we were all vibrating in the same frequency in that very moment. Even if it was just for a bit, we were all...together, in a sense.
By this I don't mean that Catholic prayers are wrong or "less good", but only that maybe my whole praying experience in the Catholic religion would have been different if I had understood this from the beginning. I know some people do.
Anyway, back to the festivities.
Lastly, the God is carried in a truck all the way down the hill and to the river, in which he will be submerged. In our case, we all walked in front of the truck dancing to the music, enjoying the rain & from time to time trying to join in the shouts of the people:
" Ganpati Bappa Morya!"
*Photos taken by Tatsuya Yokota*
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