One of the most memorable events of my childhood Diwali is making Diwali ghar. There was this beautiful custom of building a small house(doll house) during Diwali in Bihar. This was mostly done by children, especially the girls. This brought in a lot of excitement for us. This required a lot of planning, saving money and then executing the plan. We also had to maintain secrecy to some extent so that we can surprise our friends.
Three four days before Diwali Chinni(my younger sister) and I used to start collecting bricks and transported them to our flat on the second floor. Then, we carried mitti(clay). We used these to build a small house in our balcony since we had no garden area. Usually, the building was two storyed with a staircase.Those with more resources even whitewashed their houses. Some people built permanent cement doll-houses for their kids. We used colour papers and festoons decorate the houses. This task really brought out our creative ability. Once the house was ready, we had to do some shopping.
The markets were full of colourful diwali gudiyas(dolls) made of clay. The clay dolls(gudiyas) held 5 or 7 diyas in their hands forming an arch above their heads. We selected two dolls. We placed the doll above the terrace of the Diwali ghar. We filled the tiny diyas with oil and placed tiny wicks.Next on on our list were small clay pots. We filled these pots with muri(puffed rice) and bathasha(sugar candies) .
Diwali evening was reserved for visiting friends and receiving them. Young girls wearing beautiful traditional outfits and running here and there was really a wonderful sight.
With great pride we showed off our Diwali ghar to our friends. There used to be a lot of gossip and discussion about how the houses were built! The little ghars with tiny diyas looked splendid.
The little pots were distributed among friends. We used to form tolis(groups) and visit neighbourhood friends. Of course, we burst crackers late into the night. The next morning we sat and counted the number of tiny pots we received from our friends. We treasured the pots, that symbolized the number of friends we had, with great pride and happiness!
Three four days before Diwali Chinni(my younger sister) and I used to start collecting bricks and transported them to our flat on the second floor. Then, we carried mitti(clay). We used these to build a small house in our balcony since we had no garden area. Usually, the building was two storyed with a staircase.Those with more resources even whitewashed their houses. Some people built permanent cement doll-houses for their kids. We used colour papers and festoons decorate the houses. This task really brought out our creative ability. Once the house was ready, we had to do some shopping.
The markets were full of colourful diwali gudiyas(dolls) made of clay. The clay dolls(gudiyas) held 5 or 7 diyas in their hands forming an arch above their heads. We selected two dolls. We placed the doll above the terrace of the Diwali ghar. We filled the tiny diyas with oil and placed tiny wicks.Next on on our list were small clay pots. We filled these pots with muri(puffed rice) and bathasha(sugar candies) .
Diwali evening was reserved for visiting friends and receiving them. Young girls wearing beautiful traditional outfits and running here and there was really a wonderful sight.
With great pride we showed off our Diwali ghar to our friends. There used to be a lot of gossip and discussion about how the houses were built! The little ghars with tiny diyas looked splendid.
The little pots were distributed among friends. We used to form tolis(groups) and visit neighbourhood friends. Of course, we burst crackers late into the night. The next morning we sat and counted the number of tiny pots we received from our friends. We treasured the pots, that symbolized the number of friends we had, with great pride and happiness!
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