It goes for ten days and everything stops for the last two. Tonight is the tenth and final night, so lots of parades and idols.
The idea is that the goddess Durga will show 26 favors during the festival. She is the destroyer of evil. The Hindus build very elaborate temples and idols. Really works of art. People come and sit before her and watch and listen to the droning from the loud speakers.
The streets are fully decorated with red and white hangings. Quite lovely. No school, no work. Today the traffic is extremely light. And therefore no newspaper.
Manoj took several of us on a tour during the day yesterday. During daylight hours, mind you. The temples were all over. Sort of a combination of New Year's Eve, 4th of July, and Christmas.
In 19 days is another major festival, Dewali, the feast of lights. That is a lovely festival with decorations of light on all the streets. I remember being in Kathmandu for Dewali one year adn the narrow streets were hung with lights. A beautiful sight.
The correlation of Dewali and the Gospel is quite an easy step. For Durga Puja I haven' t heard any such overlap. In some situations Christians will offer what amounts to a counter statement of the festival. Kind of risky here in northern India with tense relations between Hindus and Christians in Orissa.
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