Ravana Burning

This week, India celebrates the Hindu holiday of Dusshera. This festival marks the triumph of good over evil and culminates with the burning of larger than life effigies of Ravana, the ten-headed demon king who carried away the wife of Rama, a Hindu god. That's the hugely boiled down version of an epic tale. I still have much to learn about the Hindu religion and Indian culture.

Last year, Dussehra fell over October break and we saw how it was done in Nepal. This time around, school is in session and today the elementary and middle school students got to see an effigy burning that they will not soon forget.

Here is Ravana before:

The crowd gathers with nervous anticipation (an elementary school building in the background):

Video of the evil king ablaze:

And then, I ran as smoke and charred bits of Ravana floated toward me. 

And Ravana after (those are dragon flies in the air, New Delhi is swarming with them lately):

And here is the crafty Ravana that Liam made at school today:

So if the last post made it sound as though life here was just like suburban America, the giant burning orange dude on the high school field this morning was a sound reminder that we are in fact, still living in India.