From: martin@address-in-sig.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 30 Oct 2016 14:53:58 -0700, The old geezer wrote:   
      
   > .......Pumpkins yet????   
   >   
   > Do you still get pumpkins out in the country & carve Jack 'o Lanterns   
   > for Halloween?   
   >   
   No pumpkins, but I know a far better and much more vigourous and   
   interesting celebration: Diwali, a Hindu festival at more at less the   
   same time.   
      
   The best way I can describe Diwali is a combination of Xmas and Guy   
   Fawkes Night (Brits will know exactly what I mean - for the rest Guy   
   Fawkes night is a firework festival to celebrate King James I surviving a   
   plot involving several barrels of gunpowder placed under Parliament and   
   meant to go off when the King was opening it [*]). However, it involves   
   wholesale use of really big bangers, rockets, etc from sunset to 5AM the   
   next morning. That night sounds like gunnery practise for a major WW1   
   battle and with lesser sessions for a couple of nights either side of the   
   festival.   
      
   I was in Jaipur (Rajasthan, India) for this year's Diwali and was most   
   impressed by the whole thing. If you like serious fireworks go there, get   
   some (anybody can) and let rip! Ever seen a 'jumping jack' in the form of   
   a woven 5m x 150mm strip of large bangers that burns for 1-2 minutes   
   while pulverising itself?   
      
   [*] in fact the celebration seems to be entirely bogus, amounting to   
   little more than celebrating an attempt by the Cecils (Protestant   
   nobility and chums with the King) to grab the Fawkes (Catholic nobility)   
   lands (successfully). Being a Catholic wasn't a good idea in those days   
   because England only became Protestant when the Pope wouldn't give Henry   
   VIII a divorce. The Protestant James was King following Cromwell and the   
   unpopular Catholic kings Charles I and II.   
      
      
   --   
   martin@   | Martin Gregorie   
   gregorie. | Essex, UK   
   org       |   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)