Diwali, Shree Swaminarayan Temple Wantirna

Diwali is the festival of lights and are celebrated over 5 days. It is celebrated differently in different regions of India. Different deities are celebrated by different communities during the festival. The same festival, but celebrated in so many different ways! This tells of the diversity of the Indian community. But one thing is for sure, the celebrations are widespread, vibrant and joyful. This year, the celebrations fell on 31st October. 

We went to the local temple and joined the local celebrations which involved music, drums, dancing and food. We saw some ladies dancing with a nunchuk looking instrument but studded with bells. Then everyone joined in to dance to the music on the street, just like in a Bollywood movie scene.

We got some street food (literally food from stalls on the street) that operated on a voucher system. Buy the voucher, go to the stall and pay with the voucher. We got some chaat puri to share, a rose water ice cream and a big bag of crackers made from besan flour (chickpea flour). 

The chaat puri was fried potatoes topped with yogurt, crispy sev (chickpea flour noodles), coriander, chilli chutney. It was filling and delicious. All the food sold at the temple are vegetarian. 

The people at the temple were very welcoming and friendly. One of them who was manning the snack store in the temple chatted freely with us as though we were his long time friends. We bought a big bag of papad for $10. It was made from chickpea flour, crispy and savoury. Over the course of the week, it slowly dwindled to nothing as we could not stop ourselves from munching on the snack after work, or during the day. 

The decorative ceilings on the outside of the temple looked so beautiful that I had to take a picture. The temple itself is not open to the public but the adjoining hall was. One of the ladies welcomed us in and showed us the beautiful kolam of several Hindu deities. 

The kolam is made of coloured rice flour and looked so beautiful. There were also a number of artworks done by children from the temple on display in the hall. 

It was an enjoyable day immersing ourselves in the Diwali celebrations. Last year, we went to Marvel Stadium to celebrate. There were dancing, music, stalls, and we even appeared on TV when the local network news reported on the event! How wonderful it is to be able to celebrate different festivals in Australia.