Thursday, October 25, 2012

TUSAL and festival

Am reeaaaally late in posting the October Tusal.

Though I had forgotten earlier, I got caught up in the festive season here in Chennai. Have not been able to go on the net for about a week now.

The festival of Navrathri, which means 9 nights, just finished. The festival is basically to drive away all evils and bring in wealth and prosperity. The 9 days/nights are split into 3 - first 3 days symbolize goddess Durga (Shakti), next 3 days goddess Lakshmi (welath) and the last 3 days goddess Saraswathi (wisdom). Many homes are decorated with a golu (display of gods/goddesses in the form of dolls) and women and girls are invited and honored.
 This was our golu this year. We did not have a golu the last 3 years due to various reasons. We invited and also visited many of our relatives to see their golus
We just had 3 steps, some people have upto 11!!! Can you imagine the number of dolls they'd have collected over the years. And imagine putting them all back, gosh
 This was a new addition to our doll set this year - the Tirupathi set with a few devotees

  
 and a view of V's little park and farm with a little pond. Check out the rickshaw and the bi-cycle!! We bought these at a crafts fair recently. They are such cuties
 
 And there definitely has to be a picture of V showing off her golu :)
 This is V doing the honors to her best friend and her mom. 

 Look at all the lovely goodies I received from US

2 bottles of lotions from bath&body works, a sewing machine for V, dark chocolate mints from Trader Joe's (thank you Edgar, they are absolutely yummy) and a few strands of beads

 I have not been able to spend any time on stitching the last week. So, no stitchy update today. I did bake some cookies to give people during the festival.
These are almond-coconut cookies. The recipe is from here. The only change I made was to add a bit of cardamom powder and that really added to the flavor. They turned out absolutely yummy

With that I take leave today. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

1 comment:

Meari said...

What a very neat festival and display! I learn a lot about your culture from reading your blog. :)

Very cool goodies from the US, too!