Lucknow: a year of Festivals

Everytime I felt like complaining about how long the week was - school from Monday - Saturday (only had Sundays off), I just had to remember how maaaannny holidays we had all years. There were so many! Some would go for a whole week. There was this god's birthday, this god's death anniversary, this god's wedding anniversary...Hindu, Sikh, Muslim holy days. Here are the festivals I experienced in 2015:

1) Wedding season. No, this is not technically a festival but it sure felt like it! When I arrived in February, I had to suffer a whole month of loud noise across the street, of trumpets and drums AND generators, and the entourage of their groom, on their way to the wedding hall. Wedding season came back in November (weather determined).

I found it disturbing actually...how much fun some people were
having, at the expense of a young boy pushing an extremely noisy generator
to fuel the lights carried by these men. 

one of the wedding I attended/ DID NOT CRASH lol
This is with my fellow teachers from CMS Station Road. Colorful!

2) Holi. the festival of colors.
A few days before this festival, I bought powder colors on the streets. On that day, me and two German volunteers decided we'd take a rickshaw to a park nearby and see what's happening. the security guard did not let us out; he said that there are a lot of drunk people on the road, and it's unsafe for us to be out. I called a friend to get us out. It really was crazy on the streets. Young boys tripling on motorcyles carrying water guns, spraying colored water on strangers! We got to a friend's house, and there were many youths there - we greeted each other by smearing colored powder on each other's faces. We danced in the garage, and threw colors in the air. A very memorable experience!

the beginning....

My friends happened to be among those
young boys with the water gun :)

3) Raksha Bandhan - festival to celebrate brother/sisterly love. A girl has to tie a rakhi (thread/bracelet) around her brother's wrist. I spent this day with Baha'i youths.

the boys showing off their rakhis and me just playing along

tying a rakhi. Oh and the boy gives the girl something in return

4) Diwali - festival of lights. I celebrated Diwali with the Indian Community in Port Harcourt for so many years! So I was really excited about actually being in India, to experience it. We went to a friend's house nearby, because they had a rooftop where we could watch the fire works. It was really noisy though! There were beautiful explosions in the sky, and we also lit a few crackers of our own.

A week before Diwali, almost everyone decorated their houses with lights
outside. It was so beautiful! I took lots of videos of the houses while
riding the bike. This picture was when we saw some a family lighting a
lantern and letting it go. 

At the house of the family we spent Diwali with - offering prayers

On a personal note, I bought two short
lights for our room. 

Festivals also meant mehendi time! This was my first, done at Hazratganj: