Ganesh Festival

Last Tuesday, we celebrated the last day of the Ganesh festival. Its a 10 day festival, and one of the (many) important Hindu festivals in India, and also one of the most famous ones. People keep idols of Lord Ganesh (or Ganpati) in their house and worship it. At the end of 10 days, the idol is immersed in the sea. Some prefer to keep the idol for a shorter period, like 2 days or 5 days.

The festival is celebrated on a grand scale. There are "community" Ganpatis as well, that are set up on the streets, or in buildings. These are generally very large, and decorated even with gold. People don't hesitate spending when it comes to this festival...

The visarjan is a grand event. Thousands of people gather at beaches to immerse their idols. Its quite a miracle that it happens without any major incident. I don't have pictures of this, but a google image search will give a good idea of what its like.

Here's a picture of an idol that was at my friend's place:

small town chat

some like to call it gossip and are annoyed by it. yes, there is a lot of gossip in small towns. but there is also the enjoyable small town chat.

since june we feel very privileged to have a small store in our little village. it opens early enough to get a breadroll before work. so sometimes I stop. and whenever I do I will of course chat a little to Sandy, the owner. And most of the times I meet a friend or neighbor on the street or in the shop. Everybody is on the way to work and everybody is happy to see a face that you maybe haven't seen in a few weeks.

very often we meet people from our village or the places we have lived in when we were children on the road. and there is always time to stop, right in the middle of the road, and to chat a little.

this morning on my way to work I met a neighbor. He was driving right in front of me and two towns further he stopped to get the newspaper. So I stopped, too. Afterwards he was driving behind me for quite a while before our ways separated.

A 450-inhabitans village is surely no vibrant city, but live in a village like that can be very vibrant! :-)

Alaska Native Heritage Center

At this point I would like to recommend a museum I have been to last month: The ALASKA NATIVE HERITAGE CENTER in Anchorage.
The museum offers not only many exhibitions but also a theater where you can listen to the native storyteller or watch movies and documentaries, a stage where natives show and teach their dances, music and games. You can walk through seven villages of native tribes (and you can take a guided tour if you want to) and many many more interesting things.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is a non-profit organisation. If you would like to read more about it, please click on the logo.