Funnily enough, the day the new theme was announced, we celebrated the festival of Lohri here in India, and immediately I knew the picture I wanted to take! Serendipity 🙂
Lohri is a celebration of the arrival of Spring! Like a majority of Indian festivals, it involves a riot of colour, much delicious food, loud music, much Bollywood dancing and fire in some form! This one had a rather gorgeous bonfire that served my purpose beautifully 🙂 Again I used the 50 mm, which is really hard to beat in low-light and snapped away happily at the orangey-gold flames and their showers of bright sparks.
Felt like a real photographer – a feeling I haven’t had in ages – felt GOOD 🙂 I have blogged in more detail and with more pictures about the festival in a previous post – Bonfire & Kites!
If you would like to join the challenge click here or on the CameraShy button on my homepage! You won’t regret it 🙂
Last night, I attended my first Lohri celebration 🙂 Lohri is how the Punjabi community celebrates the winter solstice. It is twinned with Makar Sankranti – a day that heralds the arrival of Spring and the transition of the Sun into Capricorn. Whatever the religious and cultural significance – it doesn’t really matter to me. Every festival in India is a riot of colour, a cacophony of sound and a photo-op made in heaven 😉 Lohri last night and Sankranti this morning were no different!
Lohri was celebrated last night with characteristic Punjabi aplomb! Bhangra beats filled the air, the crowds lined up to gorge on the yummy eats (chole bhature to die for!), children of all ages lit floating lanterns, and when the Bonfire was lit – it was time to circle it, make a wish perhaps, and dance! There’s an exuberance to a community celebration that is quite unmatched by any private party, no matter how jolly. It’s as if the positive vibes multiply and ensconce all those present in a happy bubble – so that for a while – All is Well. Troubles are Forgotten. Life is Good 🙂
Rangoli wishes 🙂
Letting go…
Up, Up & Away!
A mix of puffed rice, nuts and sesame to throw onto the Bonfire…
Waiting…
Ablaze!
Sparks…
As seen from our 13th Floor Balcony
A crisp, hot, heavenly Bhatura! (a kind of deep-fried Indian bread)
Today is Makar Sankranti – and for whatever reason is celebrated in my home state of Goa and neighbouring Maharashtra and probably in many others – by flying kites. Yeah! Go Figure! We had already bought a kite last night for Junior, and so armed with it, we made our way down to the playground where hundreds of people had gathered for some major kite-flying action! Never mind that we had neglected to buy a spool 😛 Never mind that all of us were kite-flying dummies! Never mind that we were trying to fly the kite with some sewing thread that we tied randomly to it, with utter disregard for the physics of flying 😉 IT WAS FUN 😀 Junior held the kite and the spool alternately trying to make it rise into the air, catch the current – fly! We got it a few feet off the ground for a few seconds at a time and we were so excited you’d think we’d made it to the moon 😉 It’s a wonderful feeling – trying something new, having no expectations, just letting go!
And I got more pictures – not quite a Skyful of Kites that I was hoping for, but enough to make this 1 minute film that i’m sharing below! I’m really impressed with iPhoto – my yearning for Adobe Lightroom has all but disappeared! It was a piece of cake, making the slideshow and turning it into a movie. It even told me how long my music piece to go with should be! I see many long, happy hours of experimentation ahead 🙂
And so let me with you all a Very Happy Lohri, A Very Happy Sankranti! May this Spring be a beautiful harbinger to a fruitful Summer!
H is for Happiness 