India is an incredibly festive country. Every evening on the west coast families make their ways to the beach to celebrate the sunset. The sounds and colours are magical.
Sunset at the beach in Cochin
I have been to India a few times, always in January and sometimes their Christmas decorations are still on display. It seems strange to me coming from wet and cold London to find an open air restaurant in 30ºC heat with Christmas decorations
Festive restaurant in Varkala Kerala
Almost every day is a day of celebration for one of the multitude of religions that are practised in India. Each one celebrates their special days with an abundance of floral decorations. We went to Thiruvananthapuram and visited some of the temples. We were enchanted with the wonderful festive decorations and souvenirs on display.
Souvenirs outside the temple in Thiruvananthapuram
Note a lovely bike featuring again in this photo 🙂 I didn’t realise how much I like photographing bikes!!
I forgot to ask what these were for. I think they were candles for the temple, but I thought they looked like little Christmas trees!
To find out more about this weeks Travel Theme, hop over to ‘Where’s My Backpack?‘
This week’s Travel Theme is Festive
Day One 
Of course you have been to India a couple of times. Now I know why we connect. I visited Kerala as well. Did you have darshan with Amma? I wouldn’t be surprised if you did, Barbara. You are full of compassion and worldliness.
Beautiful pictures. They really capture the contrast in India–bright vivid colors on old dilapidated streets. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you for such lovely comments :). I have hundreds of beautiful photos from India, I am planning to write about my travels there and other countries over the next few months, and post he photos in my ‘travels’ section! For now I just pick a few at a time to go with the photo themes and challenges.
We didn’t manage to meet with Amma yet, but we are hoping to maybe be able to visit India this January, and if so we will do our best. She is often on pilgrimage and I think I remember that January was not a good month to find her.
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PS We connect because you made a badge, Bloggers for Peace, positive action, that even I can take. Thank you so much for that, you have made me very happy with my new badge 😀
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All truth be told, Rarasaur made the badge, but thank you anyways. I am so excited. We are going to have monthly writing challenges, awards, give-aways, and t-shirts. But most importantly, I really feel that this barrage of posts on peace will make a difference in our lives, our communities, the internet, and the world.
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Yay!!! 🙂 Count me in!!!
Rarasaur is a very clever dinosaur indeed
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What a feast of festive colour! Barbara, I love your photos.
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India is a feast of festive colour in itself. The women wear beautiful coloured saris, the taxis, trucks and cars are all brightly painted and decorated with flowers, and the churches, mosques, synagogues and temples are all beautifully adorned with colour and flowers. You would giggle if you saw the Catholic Churches there, they are so brightly coloured. I must try & find a photo for you.
These photos are quite old now (2006) I have got a bit better since. I take more time over my pictures and consider the lighting better now, however I did have some lucky snaps that are just perfect. I love the Christmas Tree candles, most definitely not for Christmas, unless it was as Rummuser says, a case of paisa vasool… Candles originally made for Christian Christmas celebrations now being sold outside a temple as temple candles, who knows?
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Yes, they are candles indeed. It is however rare to come across such colourful ones as mostly plain pastel coloured ones are available. The decorations are not removed due to laziness! And of course the phenomenon of paisa vasool. http://rummuser.com/?p=8438
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I love your description of paisa vasool, it’s brilliant 🙂 I can’t seem to comment on your post however, is that because .you close comments after 3 months or am I doing something wrong?
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Your comments on my post ‘touched’ has appeared and I have responded. Yes, I have blocked comments on the older posts to prevent large scale spamming,
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That makes sense 🙂
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Lovely pictures! Funny candle/christmas trees – really beautiful. I have never seen them before. Happy Holidays to you!
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Thank you very much, & the same to you! 🙂
I don’t think they really were Christmas candles as they were on sale outside the Hindu Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thrivandraparum in January, so unless they were originally made for Christmas and then after Christmas sold as pretty candles for the Hindu temple, who knows? They certain ally reminded me of Christmas Trees. I should have bought some, but it’s hard to think of Christmas in 30’C heat!!
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There is a peculiar feature of India that you may not have noticed. All religious festivals are celebrated by all religionists in one form or another as those days are inevitably holidays. Every one wishes every one else irrespective of the occasion. This is particularly true in Kerala. You will see many such cross cultural scenes in churches, mosques and temples.
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Yes, we noticed this, as you say especially in Kerala. It is one of the most wonderful things about India, the respect for each other’s religions and holy days. Everyone displays their religions proudly on their trucks and taxis and cars, and there is such a great feeling of tolerance & understanding.
There must be more bank holidays in India than in any other country, whatever religion has a special day, the banks close 🙂
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They do look like little Christmas trees – so cute. i hope you are feeling better.
.•*¨*•.♪♫♫♪Wishing you a safe and very Happy Holidays.♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸
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Thank you! I love your Christmassy message, I think I might have to copy & paste it 🙂 it’s very festive! Hope you don’t mind!!
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Ummmmmm…don’t tell her but I actually pinched it of Eliz…and changed it a bit.
😉
I am a PIRATE after all…we pilfer
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Lol, I was going to combine both of yours!!
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hahaha – you’ll make a pirate yet
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Incredible blog!
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Thank you! 🙂
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